


Good Friends and Girlfriends

by orphan_account



Series: Better than the Best (Friends) [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Complicated Relationships, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Polyamory Negotiations, Relationship Negotiation, Romantic Friendship, unusual friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 23:46:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 27,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2366408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the moment Allison Argent walks into the school, Scott knows he's in love. Which could get complicated because the friendship he has with Stiles involves more kissing than most. (Series incomplete, story should be able to stand alone.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to [A Different Sort of Friendship](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1358806), but it can be read alone if you're happy to accept that Scott and Stiles are best friends who sometimes kiss and sleep together but don't see what they are doing as dating. 
> 
> Beta'd as always by my beautiful [Holesinthesky](http://theresholesinthesky.tumblr.com/), thanks lovely! Special thanks go to the delightful [FiccinDylan](http://ficcindylan.tumblr.com/) who is co beta-ing, making it sound American and managed to get me excited about this story once more.
> 
> Three of four chapters are written, and chapters will be posted weekly. Rating subject to change.
> 
> This story deals with complicated relationships between teenagers who don't really understand the nuances of relationships and sexuality. See end notes for more details (minor spoilers).

“Stiles, I think I’m in love,” Scott says, spotting a girl new to the school. They’re sitting in math class and Scott’s gazing out the window. The new girl is easily the most beautiful person he’s ever seen in his life. She’s smiling at the principal as she’s being led inside, and all Scott wants to do is smile back at her for the rest of his life.

“I knew you’d get the hang of tangents,” Stiles says, sounding vague but pleased. He yawns and continues to doodle intently. 

“What?” Scott says. “No, out the window. There’s a new girl and I think she might be the love of my life.”

Stiles looks up, following Scott’s line of sight. “Well she’s definitely hot, I will give you that.”

Scott sighs. “She’s beautiful. She might be the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”

Stiles looks at Scott, fond and rather amused. “You think? I don’t know, I think I’ve seen better.”

“You just haven’t seen her smile yet,” Scott says. 

Stiles reaches over to shove at Scott’s shoulder.

“Well, after you’ve learned her name, you’ll have to ask her to smile at me,” Stiles says. 

“Gentlemen.” Stiles and Scott look up to find their teacher frowning in front of them. “I’m glad you find the work so thought provoking, but please, discuss it on your own time.”

“Yes Ms Jenkins,” Scott mumbles, embarrassed. Stiles grins at her.

“You might have to take all of the trig questions from the exam,” Stiles says. “I find them far too stimulating. There’s no way I can keep quiet for over an hour when faced with triangles.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Ms Jenkins says dryly. Scott stifles a giggle, and Ms Jenkins rolls her eyes and walks away. When Scott looks out the window again, the new girl is nowhere to be seen. 

They manage to get through the rest of the class in silence. By the time the bell goes Scott is nearly bursting.

“Who do you think she is?” Scott says. “She’s new, right? I’m sure I would have noticed her before. Why would she transfer so late? Do you think she’s in our grade? Do you think she would like me?”

Stiles pats Scott on the back. “Scott, I have no idea who she is, or anything about her, but she’d be a fool to not to want to date you.”

“Yeah?” Scott asks, smiling shyly. 

“Why don’t you just ask her yourself,” Stiles says, spotting the new girl standing at the end of the hallway, just a few yards away. She’s nodding earnestly at whatever the principal is telling her, and yeah, Stiles can see why Scott would go for her. Scott looks up sharply and stumbles. Stiles laughs, wrapping his arm around Scott’s shoulders, holding him so they stop walking. “Right, what’s the game plan?”

“To talk to her?” Scott says.

“Scott, you nearly fell over just looking at her, we might need a more specific plan than that,” Stiles says. The principal has left the girl on her own and she’s looking a little lost and confused. “Maybe ask her if she needs help getting somewhere?”

“I think she’s forgotten her pen,” Scott says, watching the girl dig through her bag, frowning. It seems wrong to see her unhappy. “I have an extra pen!”

“Perfect,” Stiles says, releasing Scott with a few brisk pats. “Go forth and conquer, my young protégé.”

Scott nods at him before walking up to the girl.

“Hi,” Scott says. “You must be new.”

The girl looks up and smiles sheepishly. “That obvious, huh?”

“Nah,” Scott says. “It’s just a small school and I haven’t see you around before.”

“Oh,” the girl says. 

“I’m Scott,” Scott says, holding out his hand. The girl fumbles with her bag, struggling to shove everything back inside it so she can shake Scott’s hand. Scott reaches out to steady her books.

“Thanks,” the girl says. “I’m Allison.”

Between them, Allison and Scott get all of Allison’s stuff into her bag. They smile awkwardly at each other. Allison sighs, “You think I’d be used to being the new girl all the time.”

Scott tilts his head in confusion. “You move a lot?” he asks, sympathetically.

“Yeah,” Allison says. “My parents’ job, you know?”

“That sucks,” Scott says. “My dad got moved to LA just after my parents divorced. I was pretty worried I would have to go with him.”

“I’m glad you got to stay,” Allison says. 

“Yeah?” he asks, his mouth quirking into a small, flirty smile.

“I mean because you didn’t want to move,” she adds quickly. “I just… it sucks moving all the time.”

“I guess now would be a bad time to say I’m glad you moved, then, huh?” Scott says.

Allison smiles, pleased and a little embarrassed. “Definitely,” she says. “Because then I would have to tell you I’m glad you stayed for other reasons, too.”

They grin at each other for a few moments, before Allison looks over Scott’s shoulder, frowning. “Some guy’s staring at us.”

Scott looks back over his shoulder to where Stiles is indeed staring at them. He smiles and gives Stiles a thumbs up. Stiles vigorously mimes writing in response.

“That’s just Stiles,” Scott says, turning back to Allison. “He’s my best friend.”

“Oh, right,” Allison says. She gives Stiles a small, awkward wave. “What was he gesturing?”

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” Scott says. Allison grins.

“Yeah?”

“I wanted a reason to talk to you, so I thought I’d see if you needed a pen,” Scott says, abashed. Allison is delighted.

“Yeah?” Allison says. “Well as it turns out, I am indeed in need of a pen.”

“Well lucky for you, I happen to have an extra,” Scott says. He digs through his bag and hands Allison a pen.

“Well isn’t this convenient,” Allison says. “Because I was just about to give you my number.”

Scott sticks his arm out and Allison holds it, writing her number in small, curly writing on the inside of Scott’s wrist. As soon as Allison releases his arm, Scott pulls out his phone and sends a text to Allison.

The bell for class rings, and Allison pulls out her timetable.

“I don’t suppose you have English with Mr Wilkes?” Allison asks. Scott shakes his head.

“Sorry,” Scott says. “But I can walk you there?”

Allison scrunches up her nose and points to a door two feet away. “I think it’s just there.”

“Oh,” Scott says. “Yeah. See you around?”

“Definitely,” Allison says. 

As soon a Allison disappears into the classroom, Stiles is next to Scott.

“Well?” Stiles asks. “How did it go?”

Scott holds his hand to show Stiles Allison’s number.

“Nice!” Stiles says.

They wander off to their next class, sliding in a few minutes late, but receive no more than a glare from their teacher.

“Uh, Stiles?” Scott whispers, as he pulls his things out.

“Yeah, buddy?” Stiles says.

“I need to borrow a pen.”

*  
After changing schools at least five times in the last three years, Allison is getting pretty good at being the new girl all the time. She knows how to quickly learn where her classes are and which teachers she can ask for help from. It’s second nature to her to walk into a new class and quietly inform the teacher who she is. She hates big class introductions, but she can weather them easily. Fortunately, Mr Wilkes just nods at her and adds a note to his role, leaving her to find a seat. To Allison’s surprise, a pretty redhead waves at her and gestures for her to sit in the spare seat in front of her.

“Thanks,” Allison says, sliding quickly into the chair and giving the girl a grateful smile.

“I love your shoes,” the girl says. “Where did you get them?”

“Oh, um, my mom used to be a buyer,” Allison says. “When we lived in San Francisco.”

“I’m Lydia,” the girls says, smiling. “And I think we are going to be best friends.”

Allison laughs. “I’m Allison.”

*  
When Scott and Stiles walk into the cafeteria for lunch, they stop and look for Allison. She’s sitting at a table with, amongst other people, Lydia and Jackson.

“Wait,” Stiles says. “Has Allison made friend with Lydia?”

“Looks like,” Scott says. He waves at Allison. She grins and waves back. Allison doesn’t gesture for them to come over, but the table is pretty full.

“Scott, this is perfect,” Stiles says. “If you date Allison, I have an in with Lydia. And then our girlfriends will be best friends.”

They find their own table, and are complaining about chemistry class when Allison comes over to join them.

“Hey,” Allison says. “Stiles, right? I’m Allison.”

“Yeah,” Stiles says. “Scott mentioned. About fifty times.”

Scott shoves Stiles and Allison laughs.

“Sorry about earlier,” Allison says, gesturing to Lydia’s table. “Lydia said there was some kind of weird tension between you and Jackson?”

“You could say that,” Stiles says. 

“Yeah?” Allison asks. Stiles deflates in the face of her open and earnest concern. He doesn’t want to make things awkward for her and Lydia.

“Just stupid stuff,” Stiles says. “We got into a fight in first grade and never really got over it. He stole my juicebox.”

“No! I’ll see if I can get him to buy you a new one,” Allison says, laughing. She glances over to the table, where Lydia is gesturing for her to come over. “I should get back, Lydia was talking about organising a party so I can get to know everyone,” Allison says. “I just wanted to come over and make sure you knew I wasn’t snubbing you guys.”

“No, that’s fine,” Scott says.

“Awesome,” Allison says. She smiles and walks back across the cafeteria. 

Scott sighs. “She’s perfect.”

“Tension,” Stiles says, outraged. “Lydia said there’s some ‘weird tension’ between me and Jackson. How has she not noticed he’s a complete jackass?”

“She probably just didn’t want to make Allison feel uncomfortable,” Scott says, rubbing a hand down Stiles’s back. 

“I guess,” Stiles says.

“Why would anyone want to make Allison unhappy?” Scott asks. Stiles rolls his eyes and leans into Scott.

*  
“I think Mr Harris might actually be trying to kill me,” Stiles says, groaning and collapsing over his chemistry homework. Scott looks up from his phone. “I will go down as the first recorded case of death by homework.”

Scott looks down at his own neglected homework and sighs. He looks longingly at the last text Allison sent, steeling himself before writing a quick reply and letting her know he has to go and do homework now. With a mournful sigh, he picks a pen and ask Stiles, “So what exactly does it mean to balance an equation?” 

Stiles sits himself up and stretches. “It means giving up on any hope of having fun again before you’re forty,” Stiles says. He shifts onto his knees so he can look at Scott’s book.

It’s nearly an hour later before they finish. Stiles stands up and leans over Scott, bracing his hands on the chair arms and dropping his head onto Scott’s shoulder. He lets out a pitiful groan. 

“Scott I have a problem,” Stiles says. Scott shifts back on the chair and tugs Stiles until he’s sitting on his lap. They’ve both grown since they first started to do this, and Stiles’s legs are now long enough that his feet reach the ground when he’s straddling Scott. 

“Yeah?” Scott asks, running his hands up and down Stiles’s back. Stiles noses into Scott’s neck.

“Yeah,” Stiles says. “I’m trying to come up with a way of taking over the world so I can outlaw chemical equations, but I’m pretty sure they all ironically require me to use chemical equations. I just really don’t want to be hearing Harris’s voice saying ‘I told you chemical equations would be useful to your future’ when I’m having my minions arrest him for being a jerkface.”

Scott laughs and kisses Stiles’s hair. The chair they’re sitting in isn’t really designed for two people to cuddle on, and it’s not long before they’re too uncomfortable to continue. Stiles flops back onto his bed and stretches his legs out over Scott’s thighs.

“How’s Allison?” Stiles asks, lifting up one of his legs and poking Scott’s belly with his toe. He’s amused to see Scott is already back to smiling at his phone.

“She’s hanging out with Lydia,” Scott says. “I think they’re planning a party for this weekend.”

“Oh?” Stiles asks, sitting up slightly. “A party that we’re invited to?”

“I think so,” Scott says.

“Yes!” Stiles says, grinning and punching the air. “We’re getting invited to a party. A proper party with underage drinking and terrible decisions. I was beginning to think they were a myth.”

*  
“We’ll have punch,” Lydia says, pursing her lips thoughtfully. “Much classier than a keg.” 

Allison’s phone lights up and she reaches for it, smiling to herself. Lydia rolls her eyes.

“Let me guess, the ever so dreamy and completely irresistible Scott,” Lydia says. “I know you are new here, but surely you’ve picked up that he’s a bit of a dork, right?”

“He’s sweet,” Allison says.

“He’s adorable,” Lydia says dismissively. “But he’s useless.”

“I don’t know,” Allison says, grinning. “I’m guessing you haven’t used him in the way I intend to.”

Lydia laughs and throws a pillow at Allison. “You are wicked,” Lydia says. “I love it. It’s so… unexpected. And refreshing.”

Allison finishes typing another text, tucking her phone away once she’s sent it.

“So, punch?”

*  
Sometimes Allison feels like she becomes a new person every time she has to move, like she’s building her persona again from scratch. She’s only been in Beacon Hills for three days, and someone’s throwing a party in her honour. It had taken nearly two months in San Francisco for her to leave the house for anything other than school and family things. Before that, she spent every Saturday night sleeping over at someone’s house. 

Allison knows who she is, or at least, she knows the essentials. She’s fiercely independent and values her own strength. She’s happy to embrace her feminine side, but she’s won’t be thought of as weak. She doesn’t cry over puppies or go weak in the knees at the sight of blood. She can take care of herself. She values her body and embraces her sexuality. All of these things are important to Allison, and she’s never really felt she’s done anything to go against them, and yet she feels like a different person at every new school, to every new group of people.

It can be disconcerting and disorientating, but Allison embraces it as opportunities to explore who she could be and who she wants to be. It’s partly what draws her to Lydia. Here’s a girl who might well be a certifiable genius and clearly values this intelligence. Yet she’s also a girl who puts a lot of stock into appearances and maintaining high social status. Lydia corrects textbooks with one hand and sends dirty texts with the other. There’s nothing contradictory in her, all of these aspects come together seamlessly to form one Lydia. And that is something Allison can respect.

*  
When Scott and Stiles arrive at Lydia’s house, the party is already in full swing. They had discussed extensively whether they should aim to arrive early or late. Coming late might make them seem cooler, but in the end it was decided that arriving early would give Scott a chance to hang out with Allison, and Stiles could annoy Lydia while she set up. Of course, their brilliant wooing plans are foiled by an unexpectedly long pre-party nap.

It gives Stiles a rush a fondness when he raises his hand to knock on Lydia’s door. The last time he had been here was for her ninth birthday, back when the entire class was invited to her parties.

“Stiles, why are you here?” Lydia asks, sighing as she opens the door to let them in. Stiles gives her his most winning smile.

“Allison invited us,” Stiles says.

“No,” Lydia says. “Allison invited Scott, because she is inexplicably smitten with him.”

“Hear that, Scott?” Stiles says, punching Scott’s arm. “She’s smitten with you!”

“That’s good, right?” Scott asks. Stiles throws his arm around Scotts shoulder and pats his chest.

“Yes it is, Scotty my boy,” Stiles says. Lydia rolls her eyes and lets Scott and Stiles in.

“Just try to not destroy anything, embarrass me or… Stiles? Just don’t talk to anyone,” Lydia says. Stiles grins at her and starts to push Scott through Lydia’s house. They’re only an hour late, but already the house seems packed. It’s a bigger party than Stiles or Scott have ever been too, easily three times the size of her childhood birthday parties. It makes the little birthday barbeque parties Scott and Stiles have with their parents seem ridiculous. 

They find Allison milling around the kitchen, not hiding, but not quite comfortable with the sheer mass of people.

“Hey!” Scott says, beaming at her. Allison smiles back.

“Hey,” Allison says. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t make it.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Scott says, looking sheepish.

“We may have overdone it on the pre-party napping,” Stiles says. This seems to delight Allison, who laughs.

“I forgot to take my pre-party nap,” Allison says.

“Rookie mistake.” Stiles shakes his head. “You’ll be asleep by nine and miss out on all of the teenage hijinks.”

“If I’d known there would be hijinks, I definitely would have napped,” Allison says. And with that, Stiles realizes Allison has moved from ‘hot girl Scott has a crush on’ to ‘potential new friend’.

“Next time,” Stiles says.

“Does Lydia throw many parties this big?” Allison asks, looking concerned.

“I think her birthday parties are bigger,” Scott says. “But we’re not really party people.”

Allison nods, not mentioning that she knows they are only here because she invited them.

“They can be fun,” Allison says. “But I think you either need to know a lot of people, or get a bit tipsy.”

“You’re not drinking?” Scott asks, gesturing to her empty hands. Allison shrugs.

“Lydia threw this party so I could get to know people,” Allison says. “It’d be a bit of a waste if I forgot it all tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Scott says. “We’re not drinking either.”

Scott doesn’t mention that he’s not drinking because he’s worried he’ll make an idiot of himself in front of Allison, and he talked Stiles into staying sober with him.

“Oh, don’t on my behalf!” Allison says.

“Nah,” Stiles says easily. “I’m designated driver, and I made Scott promise to stay sober with me so I wasn’t stuck being alone in a room full of drunk people.”

“Oh, right, cool,” Allison says.

“You look really pretty tonight,” Scott says, smiling.

“Yeah, totally banging,” Stiles says. He winces. “I think I need to go find the bathroom.”

Allison laughs and Scott blushes.

“For peeing!” Stiles says. “And foot from mouth removal.”

Stiles ducks his head and leaves the kitchen quickly. 

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of Stiles,” Scott says, watching Stiles weave between the guests. “But I am excellent at lying low at parties.”

“Oh really?” Allison says. “You might want to be careful with that boasting, because I held the title for party-lie-lower at my old school.”

“I laid low at an eighth birthday party which had four clowns and only seven guests,” Scott says.

“But have you lain low recently?” Allison asks. Scott shakes his head. “Come with me, then, I can teach you some of the new techniques.”

*  
For all that Sitles has spent hours daydreaming about being invited to one of Lydia’s parties, he finds it hard to know what he’s meant to be doing. There’s people _everywhere_. Seriously, Stiles can’t work out where they have all come from because there’s not that many people in Beacon Hills, let alone this number of teenagers. The music is loud and Stiles finds it easy to get caught up in the atmosphere, pushing through groups of people and dancing with more enthusiasm than skill. He has a sneaking suspicion people think he’s tipsy, but it means no one minds when his limbs make contact with innocent passers-by.

It takes nearly an hour before Stiles runs into Lydia again, by which point his enthusiasm for the party is starting to wane, and all he wants to do is find Scott and make him do the robot.

“Lydia!” Stiles shouts. “Pretty rocking party!”

“I know,” Lydia says, not bothering to raise her voice. Stiles nods, not sure if Lydia has just worked out how to pitch her voice well enough to be heard over the din, or if he’s just spent too long straining to hear her.

“I haven’t spoken to anyone,” Stiles offers. “And unless you count accidentally kneeing a guy’s balls while showing off some sweet moves, I haven’t embarrassed myself.”

Stiles preens slightly and Lydia frowns. She grabs his arm and starts shoving him to a nearby room. 

“Stiles, Allison invited Scott,” Lydia says, shutting the door firmly behind her and giving Stiles a serious look. “Because for some unknown reason she likes him. I fail to see how my friend’s misguided crush on your friend ends up with you talking to me at a party.”

“Hey!” Stiles says, indignant. “Scott’s a catch.”

Lydia rolls her eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with Scott. He’s… he’s like a puppy. Cute, but I’m worried he’ll start peeing on the couch if he gets too excited.”

“I’ll have you know Scott is completely toilet trained,” Stiles says. “He can also sit, roll over and play dead.”

“Well I can definitely see why Allison’s going after him, then,” Lydia says. “That’s what every girl looks for in a boyfriend.”

“Yeah?” Stiles says. He waggles his eyebrows. “I’ve nearly mastered fetch.”

Lydia sighs. “Stiles, please be somewhere I am not.”

“Do I get a treat?” Stiles asks, grinning. Lydia closes her eyes.

“No Stiles, you do not get a treat,” Lydia says. Stiles has no idea what he’s done wrong, but Lydia seems to have gone from playfully cross to actually upset with him.

“Right, sorry,” Stiles says. He points at another door in the room. “I’d better go, then, and see to that… thing.”

“Please do,” Lydia says.

“Sorry,” Stiles mumbles again, tripping over himself slightly in his haste to get away. 

*  
The school year winds up in a flurry of tests, last minute assignment writing and making summer plans. Scott alternates his time between fretting about having to do summer school and waxing poetic about Allison, how smart she is, how funny, how beautiful, how she is apparently secretly Robin Hood and can shoot arrows accurately over more than two hundred feet. Other things have caught Scott’s attention in the past, but Scott’s infatuation with Allison lights him up in ways baseball, Call of Duty and new flavors of pop-tarts never have. Stiles loves to watch Scott grin stupidly and wave his arms around when he tells one of his seemingly never-ending Allison stories. It makes him wonder, briefly, why his undying love for Lydia seems to cause him more angst than joy. He comforts himself with the thought that Scott and Allison are just much simpler people than Lydia and he are. Everything seems set up for the most perfect summer yet.

*  
“It’s a big deal for my family,” Allison says, almost apologetically. Lydia groans, flopping back onto her bed.

“It’s living in the woods and hunting for three months!” Lydia says. “They cannot seriously think that is more important than keeping me company. You can’t leave me to six weeks going to golf games and then six weeks pretending to care about the latest fashionable disease.”

“We usually only go for a couple of weeks, but apparently now that I’m seventeen I need to get to know my family better,” Allison says. 

“Because once you’re eighteen you never have to talk to them again?” Lydia asks, sitting up and arching an eyebrow.

“No, it’s…” Allison says, biting her lip and looking at Lydia intently. “You know how parents always say, ‘I’ll tell you when you’re older’?”

“Allison, please don’t tell me your parents think you don’t know where babies come from,” Lydia says. Allison gives Lydia’s shoulder a shove.

“No, we have gone through that traumatic conversation already,” Allison says. She gives Lydia a careful look before continuing. “It’s more things like why we move around so much and why I’m not allowed within half a mile of the Hale property and why Aunt Kate is missing half her arm.”

“And they’re going to tell you all of that when you’re eighteen?” Lydia asks. Allison shrugs.

“Sort of,” Allison says. “There’s going to be some big thing the summer after I turn eighteen, so I think that’s when they’re going to tell me. Apparently there’s some Argent rite of passage I have to go through before they’ll tell me anything.”

“Unless your family is part of some freaky cult, that sounds like it will be the lamest summer imaginable,” Lydia says. “Although if they’re waiting until you’re eighteen to tell you about your Aunt, she might have lost the arm in some weird sex thing gone wrong.”

Allison wrinkles her nose. “Some weird sex thing? Lydia? If whatever you and Jackson are doing could result in someone losing an arm, you’re doing something wrong.”

Lydia laughs, shifting until she is lying on her stomach, propping her chin up with her hands and looking at Allison seriously, eyes glinting. “Allison, Allison, Allison. You have so much to learn.”

“Do I?” Allison asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh yes,” Lydia says. “I shudder to think what you and Scott are getting up to if you can’t see how someone might break an arm during sex.”

“Well first of all, Scott and I are getting up to nothing, thank you very much, we’ve known each other for less than three weeks,” Allison says.

“Fine, you like to take things slow,” Lydia says. “Although I am a firm believer in trying out the merchandise before you commit to anything. I mean, you don’t want to spend weeks getting attached and then find out his-”

“And secondly,” Allison says loudly, cutting Lydia off. “It doesn’t matter what you are doing, if someone ends up needing to have half of their arm amputated after sex, you are definitely doing it wrong.”

“Amputated,” Lydia muses. “And they won’t tell you why. I’d say drunk driving, but you drive so they definitely would have told you that when you got your licence. Jackson’s parents told him the weirdest stuff to try to make sure he never drove after drinking. I’ve never heard of a genetic disease that only affects the lower half of one limb, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.”

“Well good,” Allison says. “Because I had definitely been worrying about that. It’s nothing like that, though, it’s just some weird family thing. The only time I’ve ever mentioned it, Aunt Kate got this really weird look in her eyes, and Mom yelled at me for about an hour and made me promise not to bring it up again before I was eighteen.”

“Do you think someone in your family did it to her?” Lydia asks, sounding fascinated by the prospect.

“No,” Allison says, frowning. “They wouldn’t, and if they did, why would they tell me at eighteen? That makes no sense.”

“I suppose not,” Lydia says, shrugging and to Allison’s relief she changed the subject. “So do you want to be doing non-arm breaking things with Scott?”

*  
Allison puts off telling Scott that she’s going away until the very last moment, leaving it until they’re dawdling in the parking lot after school a few days before the end of term. She’s cutting it fine, but it’s been so nice spending time with him and making vague plans for the holidays. Normal. Her family almost always moves over the summer, or her parents go out of town and she stays with Aunt Kate. She’s never really made summer plans with friends, and certainly never with potential boyfriends. She knows that Stiles will almost inevitably be there too, which she finds surprisingly easy to accept.

“And we have to see if Allison can eat an entire pizza by herself,” Stiles says seriously to Scott, who is nodding back. Allison laughs, not exactly amused but not concerned either. It’s just the only reaction she can find in the face of Stiles’s enthusiasm for her to take part in all of his and Scott’s summer traditions.

“Do not laugh,” Stiles says to Allison. “It’s serious business. You’re not allowed to do a Star Wars marathon without the sweet agony of a stomach full of and entire family-sized pizza.”

Allison straightens her face and gives Stiles a solemn nod. Stiles slaps Scott on the back and grins at Allison.

“This is going to be the best summer ever,” Stiles says happily. Allison finds she can’t grin back and her stomach twists uncomfortably. It’s the first twinge of guilt she’s felt for not letting Scott and Stiles know she’s not going to be in town for the summer. Feeling guilty over deceiving Stiles is a bit of a surprise, but she takes it as a sign that it’s time to tell them. She’s put it off for too long already.

“I’m going away for the summer,” Allison says. Scott goes completely still and silent, his face a picture of poorly concealed quiet devastation and Allison is glad she decided to tell the two of them at the same time.

“No,” Stiles says, groaning. “You can’t go away. I had this whole plan to convince Scott to watch nineties chick flicks and… well, never mind. It’s ruined now.”

“Sorry,” Allison says, feeling her lips tug into a smile despite her disappointment. “I have this family thing, otherwise I would definitely stay, even if it was just to work out what you were planning.”

Stiles sighs dramatically. “It’s okay, geniuses always have to work in adverse conditions. It’s nature’s way of ensuring we don’t take over the world and figure out how to destroy the universe.”

“If it’s any consolation I’m being sent out into the woods for three months to learn how to hunt,” Allison says. This news is strange enough to startle Scott out of his despair.

“You’re going to spend three months hunting?” Scott asks. Allison shrugs.

“Apparently,” Allison says. “It’s a big deal for my family.”

“Don’t worry, buddy,” Stiles says, throwing an arm around Scott and discretely squeezing his shoulder. “I’m sure she won’t hunt any of the cute animals.”

Scott shoves Stiles away from him. “I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“Sure you weren’t,” Stiles says. He looks between Scott and Allison. “Well, I think I’m going to head home. You wanna come by later, Scott?”

“Yeah,” Scott says. Stiles puts his hand between Scott’s shoulder blades and rubs a little, before giving Allison a wave.

“Well, if I don’t see you before you go, have a great summer,” Stiles says. “Try not to kill any singing woodland creatures.”

“I’ll do my best,” Allison says. Once Stiles is gone, Allison feels a strange tension rising in her. Everything with Scott has seemed so natural, so easy so far, and she feels like this summer might ruin everything.

“So three months, huh?” Scott says. “Are you camping?”

Allison shrugs. “I think the idea is we adapt to our terrain. So if there’s cabins nearby we stay there, and if there’s not we make do. Travel light, move often, I’m not even allowed to bring my laptop. Mom and Dad are really into survival stuff.”

“You’ll have your phone though, yeah?” Scott says. Allison nods. “So if someone decides to send you encouraging texts, that would help, right?”

“Depends on what sort of texts,” Allison says, her lips quirking into a smile.

“Things like, ‘You can do it!’” Scott says. “Or ‘Watch out for that bear behind you.’”

“Oh yes, that would definitely help,” Allison says. “In fact, I might even bring home a bear-skin rug for the person who sent me those.”

Scott’s nose wrinkles with disgust. “Maybe I should be sending text messages to the bear.”

Allison laughs and impulsively reaches out to grab Scott’s hand. “You won’t forget about me, will you?”

Scott shakes his head. “No way. Forget about you? I don’t think I’ll ever forget about you. Even if a family of bears takes revenge on you, I will always remember you.”

Allison smile turns shy, and she looks over Scott’s shoulder for a moment, not sure how to respond to Scott’s earnest look, even as it dissipates all her tension for their future relationship. Her stomach sinks as she spots her dad’s car pulling up.

“Oh, that’s my dad,” Allison says.

Scott turns around. “Didn’t you drive to school today?”

“Yeah,” Allison says, groaning. “But Dad has this big thing that whenever we go anywhere there’s no notice.”

“Go where?” Scott says, confused.

“I guess my summer’s starting early,” Allison says.

“But there’s still two more days of school!” Scott protests. Allison shrugs.

“That’s never really mattered to my parents,” Allison says, giving Scott an apologetic look. “As long as my grades aren’t slipping, they basically just make sure that I’m attending the legal minimum number of days and see the rest as fairly optional.”

“Oh,” Scott says. He looks over at Allison’s dad’s car and then back at Allison, hesitating for a moment before pulling her in for a hug. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too,” Allison says back, surprised by how strongly she means it. Her dad gestures for her to cut the hug short and come over, so she reluctantly releases Scott.

“I’ll text you,” Allison promises. “Every day. Even if it means running our emergency generators flat and we have to sit in the dark for a week.”

“I’ll text you so much that Stiles will threaten to confiscate my phone and I’ll have to tackle him and lock him in the basement,” Scott says. Allison laughs, gives Scott’s cheek a peck and runs over to her car.

Scott stares after her, touching his cheek in awe.

*  
“I hate that we’re doing this,” Allison informs her dad as soon as she is in the car. “It really, really sucks that you’re taking me away for the entire summer when I’ve only just started making friends.”

“Friends?” Allison’s dad repeats. “I think that boy was interested in a bit more than friendship, Allison.”

“Okay, then, it really really sucks that you’re taking me away when I’ve only just started making friends and there’s a boy I’m pretty sure I’ll be dating soon, only now I’ll be away for three months and he might meet someone else,” Allison says.

“You’ll understand why we do this when you’re older,” Allison’s dad says, sighing. “And I’m not sure you want to go out with a boy who gets over you in one summer.”

“Because it’s completely unreasonable that he would pine after me for more than four times the amount he’s known me?” Allison says.

“I know it’s hard, Allison,” Allison’s dad says. “But this is really important and you’ll-”

“Understand why when I’m older,” Allison finishes. “Yeah, I heard you the first time.”

*  
Stiles is killing things on his Xbox when Scott comes over and he joins him silently, losing himself in the game, in the sensation of being pressed up against Stiles, in the familiarity and safety of Stiles’s bedroom. They play for nearly an hour, not talking beyond the occasional outburst of excitement in victory and frustration in losing. It’s not until Scott starts playing badly, yelling at himself with every lost life and missed opportunity, that Stiles pauses the game and turns to him.

“So Allison’s going to be gone for three months?” Stiles says. “That’s rough.”

“Yeah,” Scott says sadly. Stiles puts their controllers off the bed and lies down, pulling Scott down to lie next to him. Scott moves easily, gratefully, curling up to rest his head on Stiles’s chest, Stiles wrapping his arms around him. 

“I really like her, Stiles,” Scott says softly. Stiles rubs Scott’s back.

“I know you do, buddy,” Stiles says.

“What if she meets someone else?” Scott says.

“While she’s camping with her family?” Scott says. “Who is she going to meet? A bear? A long lost cousin? I think you’re pretty safe on that front.”

They lie in silence for a long time before Scott finally whispers, “What if she doesn’t come back?”

Stiles sits up abruptly, pulling Scott up with him, until they are able to look at one another.

“No way,” Stiles says firmly. “You and Allison? I’m pretty sure you guys have a proper true love destiny thing going on and as a wise man once said, ‘Not even death can stop true love, all it can do is delay it for a while.’”

“Yeah?” Scott asks. Stiles nods seriously.

“Definitely,” Stiles says. Scott gives a cautious smile and moves in to kiss Stiles.

Later, after they finished kissing, and have killed some more bad guys on the xbox, and were curled up together again, Scott runs his hand nervously up and down Stiles’s side.

“Do you think Allison’s going to spend the summer killing squirrels and rabbits?” Scott asks quietly.

“Nah,” Stiles says sleepily. “You’ve seen Allison. She is made of sunshine and rainbows. There’s no way she can kill anything adorable. She’ll probably only kill lions and tigers and bears.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Minor spoilers ahead)
> 
> In a later chapter, there is an instance of infidelity (where the characters involved recognise it as such and soon after come clean about it). There are also things that are sort of infidelity, depending on your definition (the characters involved have differing points of view on the matter, but in these instances, no one has gone against a prior agreement).
> 
> There's also a couple of conversations where the presumption is that monogamy is the only way to do relationships, and the characters have to work around the fact that it isn't, and it can in fact make some people unhappy. It's not explicitly addressed as such, but an understanding is come to and acceptance is found. Similarly, there's an instance where the characters talk as though one can either be gay or straight and nothing in between. This is not addressed in this story, but I'm hoping to go into it more later in the series.
> 
>  
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](http://likeanelephantfootprint.tumblr.com/)!


	2. Chapter 2

When Scott spots Allison walking across the school parking lot, it feels like the whole world stops. The summer holidays had felt impossibly long, days going forever, hours crammed into the minutes he didn’t spend doing things with Stiles or texting Allison. It was as though all of his years of begging that summer last longer had finally come true with some kind of terrible irony.

“What’s wrong?” Stiles asks, when Scott stops talking in the middle of a sentence and freezes.

“It’s Allison,” Scott says, delirious with happiness.

“See! I told you she’d come back,” Stiles says, punching Scott’s arm.

“Hi,” Allison says when she reaches them, grinning giddily at Scott. “How was your summer?”

“It was okay,” Scott says. “I had this super cute girl texting me.”

“That sounds pretty good,” Allison says.

“Yeah,” Scott says. “She wouldn’t let up, though, I think she might like me.”

“Really,” Allison says, moving slightly closer. “And do you like this girl back?”

“Maybe,” Scott says, grinning. Scott and Allison jump when the school bell goes.

*  
“This is the moment we have been waiting for,” Stiles says, clapping his hands down on Scott’s shoulders and looking him in the eyes. “This is what we have spent the entire summer, no our entire lives, training for. It all comes down to this. You. Me. And whatever coach Finstock thinks he can throw at us. Are you ready?”

“Yes!” Scott says. Stiles shakes his head.

“I said, _are you ready_?” Stiles says again.

“Yes!” Scott shouts. Stiles throws his arms around Scott.

“Then let’s do this!” Stiles shouts.

*  
“They’re good, aren’t they?” Allison asks, watching Scott run down the field. Lydia looks at her in disbelief.

“Have you _seen_ a Lacrosse game before?” Lydia demands.

Allison laughs. “I haven’t, actually. Everyone else I’ve been has been more into football. But Scott caught that ball earlier, with that net thing. It was kind of impressive.”

“Allison, that was a free throw, to make sure the people trying out aren’t completely useless,” Lydia says. “Pay attention to Jackson if you want to see what a real lacrosse player can do.”

“So you don’t think they’ll make the team?” Allison asks.

Lydia surveys the lacrosse field, making thoughtful humming noises. “They’re not great, but it’s slim pickings this year. I mean, who else are they going to pick? _Greenberg_?”

Allison forces a small, disbelieving laugh and tries to remember who Greenberg is. A loud crash comes up from the field and Lydia throws her arms up, turning to Allison.

“I don’t think I can watch this any more,” Lydia says. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“Nothing?” Allison says.

“Good,” Lydia says. “You and Scott are going to come bowling with me and Jackson.”

“Like a double date?” Allison says hesitantly.

“Exactly,” Lydia says. “I’m sick of you and Scott dancing around each other, and Jackson and I haven’t been on a proper date in a long time.”

“Scott and I aren’t dancing around each other,” Allison protests. “We spent all summer flirting over text messages.”

Lydia scoffs. “As adorable as I’m sure that was, don’t you want to do more than flirt?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Allison says, rolling her eyes. “And we’re getting there. I’ve only been back for a few days, give me time.”

Lydia grins evilly. “So you have a plan, then?”

Allison grins. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

*  
“So bowling, huh?” Stiles said, moving his hands restlessly, clicking and tapping and twisting them. “That’s pretty romantic stuff. With the lanes, and the lights and the shoes.”

“You think renting shoes is romantic?” Scott asks.

“Well, yeah. I mean, that’s the first step, isn’t it?” Stiles says. “You rent shoes together, and then you make out, and before you know you’re renting a house and making down payments on a car.”

Scott reaches out and holds Stiles’s hands still. “Why are you so nervous?” Scott asks, smiling. “It’s me who’s going on this date.”

“Yeah, and mazel tov to you, but _Lydia_ is going to be there,” Stiles says. “Lydia is going to be there watching me rent shoes. What if I do it wrong? She’ll think I’m fiscally useless and there goes the ten year plan! How can she trust me to take out a home loan with her if she thinks I can’t even rent bowling shoes, Scott?”

Scott laughs and gives Stiles’s hands a squeeze. “You’ve rented shoes before,” he points out.

“Not in front of _Lydia_ ,” Stiles says, face twisting in agony.

“True,” Scott says. He frowns thoughtfully. “Well, if it looks like things aren’t going well, shoe-renting wise, just give me the signal and I’ll distract her.”

Stiles nods, relief flooding his face. “Thanks, man.”

Scott pulls Stiles in for a kiss and he is filled with warmth at the thought that Stiles will be there with him on his first date with Allison. The same way he was there when Scott first saw her, the way he was just down the hallway the first time they talked, coming with him to Lydia’s party, including her in the summer plans they made, even if they never came to be. From the moment Scott saw Allison and realized she was the love of his life, Stiles has been with him, supported him, encouraged him and more importantly, Scott thinks Stiles has accepted Allison as a friend of his own. It feels like it will be absurdly easy for their friendship, which has been the two of them against the rest of the world for so long, to open up and include Allison. 

Scott can’t imagine anything more perfect, being able to have Allison as his girlfriend and Stiles as his best friend and have nothing change. It’s all thanks to Stiles, and Scott pours his gratitude and affection into the kiss, letting it grow hungry in a way their kisses rarely do. Scott runs his hands down Stiles back, and pulls him in impossibly close, their bodies pressing tightly together as Scott feels they always should. Stiles groans into Scott’s mouth, squeezing Scott closer still before releasing him.

“Come on,” Stiles says, grinning and straightening Scott’s collar. “We’re going to be late.”

“I love you,” Scott says, running his thumbs over Stiles’s hips.

“I know,” Stiles says, as straight faced as he can manage, but his lips and his cheeks beam at Scott anyway, as he leans in for another kiss, softer, sweeter, more like their usual kisses. “I love you, too.”

*  
“Strike!” Lydia calls out in delight. Jackson turns slowly and walks smugly back, gracefully accepting Lydia’s kiss, before turning and winking at Allison. She doesn’t notice him, though, as she’s smirking at a blushing Scott and it’s left to Stiles to glare at Jackson.

“Stiles, you’re next,” Lydia says, with the same sigh she uses every time she makes that announcement.

“You can do it!” Scott says, tearing his eyes away from Allison to give Stiles an encouraging grin and thumbs up. Stiles nods back, and walks slowly over to his ball, carrying it carefully to the lane. When he releases the ball, it manages to not only avoid the gutters, but it knocks over a large number of the pins. He stares at the fallen pins in shock, and nearly falls over when Scott tackles him for a hug.

“Seven pins!” Scott says. Stiles turns to him.

“Really?” Stiles says. Scott nods and Stiles beams.

“Yes, well done,” Lydia calls out, rolling her eyes.

“I think that brings your score up to… seven!” Jackson adds. Stiles glares at him, and Scott walks him back down to get a new ball, keeping his shoulder pressed against Stiles’s, itching to put an arm around his waist, or kiss away Stiles’s frown. Stiles’s second throw ends up missing entirely and even Allison frowns at Jackson’s snarky comment.

As the game progresses, Jackson throws more splits and strikes than anyone, and makes a point of smirking and winking at Allison. Lydia seems determined to drape over him, kissing him at every opportunity and apparently doesn’t notice the amount of attention Jackson is paying Allison, nor the way Stiles tries to defend her honor through glaring. Stiles doesn’t improve noticeably, though Scott’s enthusiasm for the meagre pins he does manage to knock over doesn’t dwindle, and Allison smiles and laughs with him enough that he doesn’t feel like a total loser. Whatever Allison whispers in Scott’s ear, curling closer than needed as she stands with him before he bowls, seems to work as Scott manages to give a decent effort.

When the game finishes, Lydia offers to get everyone drinks to celebrate Jackson’s victory and Allison’s respectable second place. Stiles leaps up to help her immediately, and Scott discretely gives him a thumbs up, out of sight of Jackson.

“What are you doing here?” Lydia hisses as they walk up to the cafe. 

“I’m helping you carry drinks?” Stiles says, thrown. “There’s five of us, it would be awkward-”

“First of all, who said I was buying you a drink?” Lydia says. “And secondly, _this is a double date you’re not supposed to be here._ ”

This second point is said so quickly and desperately it takes Stiles a second to work out what is going on.

“Yeah, but Scott’s my best friend,” Stiles says. “And you did say you were buying everyone a drink.”

“For future reference, Stiles, you are not everyone. You are no one,” Lydia says.

“Noted,” Stiles says.

“And best friends do not come on double dates,” Lydia says.

“You’re Allison’s best friend, and you’re here,” Stiles points out. They have reached the counter, so Lydia takes a deep breath and orders sweetly, paying quickly before dragging Stiles over to wait for their drinks.

“I’m going to go through this very slowly with you,” Lydia says. “A double date is when two couples decide to go out for a romantic evening together.”

“Kinky,” Stiles says. Lydia closes her eyes. “Sorry.”

“Usually, either the couples are all friends, or at least one person from one couple is friends with one person from the other couple,” Lydia says. “I am here tonight as one of Allison’s couple friends. You are here for no reason whatsoever and it’s creeping everyone out.”

“Scott doesn’t mind,” Stiles says. “He invited me. And Allison seems okay with it, too.”

“That’s because Scott is a moron and Allison is too nice for her own good,” Lydia says. “If best friends were meant to take along as fifth wheels on double dates, then Danny would be here, wouldn’t he? Do you see Danny? No. So now would be a good time for you to leave.”

“Danny’s awesome,” Stiles says. “He definitely should have come. And then he and I could be the fifth and sixth wheels and it’d be like we’re a bus.”

“Busses have eight wheels,” Lydia snaps back. “And you are not, and god help us all, never will be dating Danny.”

“What would be wrong with me dating Danny?” Stiles asks, offended. “He’s cute, I’m cute. We’d be the adorable gay couple.”

“Stiles, you aren’t gay,” Lydia says. “You’ve been hitting on me for years now.”

“That doesn’t mean I couldn’t be _attractive_ to gay guys,” Stiles says.

“You are definitely not attractive to gay guys,” Lydia says. Their order is called out and Lydia thrusts three drinks at Stiles.

“How do you know?” Stiles says. “For all you know, I could have hundreds of guys wanting a piece of this.”

Stiles gestures grandly down his chest, puffing himself up.

“They really, really don’t,” Lydia says.

“Hey, Scott!” Stiles calls out as they approach their lane. “Do you think I’m attractive to gay guys?”

Scott frowns, looking over Stiles thoughtfully. “You could be,” he concludes slowly.

“See?” Stiles says to Lydia. She shakes her head.

“Oh please, what does Scott know?” Lydia says. She hands out the drinks.

“I think Scott has excellent taste,” Allison says, smirking. Lydia rolls her eyes.

“Just because Scott has managed to notice that you are hot, does not mean that Danny would want to date Stiles,” Lydia says.

“He might!” Stiles says.

“Please,” Jackson says. “Danny won’t even admit to thinking _I’m_ his type. You are way out of his league.” 

“Danny doesn’t like you? Sounds to me like he has excellent taste,” Stiles says. Jackson gives him a withering look. As soon as Jackson looks away, Scott reaches over to give Stiles a fist bump and Allison giggles.

They continue the argument as they start the second game, Stiles, Scott and Allison enjoying escalating the conversation to ridiculous places, as Lydia refuses to let herself get drawn into the silliness, and Jackson huffs in disdain and tries to ignore them. It’s easy and comfortable and fun. Stiles does not improve at all in the second game, but the more Allison flirts with him, the better Scott plays. Jackson plays worse and worse as the game progresses, and by the end of it he and Lydia are both acting tired and cross, though it’s hard to tell what’s upset Lydia. 

“I think with my very respectable score of fifty-seven, now might be a good time for me to retire my bowling career,” Stiles announces, winking at Scott. “Allison, I was just thinking, Scott’s house is almost sitting on a direct line between here and your house, so it would make much more sense for you to take him home.”

“Oh, yes,” Allison says, straight faced. “In fact, I’m pretty sure if I don’t go up Scott’s driveway, it takes nearly ten minutes longer to get home.”

Stiles frowns. “I’m pretty sure that’s a euphemism for something.”

“You’ll have to wait to ask Scott tomorrow to find out what for,” Allison says, laughing. Scott blushes and grins. Stiles thumps him on the back and walks out, whistling. Allison gives Scott’s arm a squeeze. “I’m going to say goodbye to Lydia, then we can leave, okay?”

Scott nods happily so Allison walks over to where Lydia has dragged Jackson and is now hissing at him.

“Uh, Lydia?” Allison says hesitantly. “I’m going to head off now.”

Lydia nods and lets Allison pull her into a quick hug, glaring when Jackson follows suit. The hug is quick, just Jackson throwing his arms around Allison and pressing them together for a beat before releasing her, but Jackson gives a cocky grin and Lydia looks like she is about to explode.

“So I’ll see you guys at school,” Allison says, backing away swiftly, not sure if Lydia can contain her wrath for much longer.

Scott’s texting when Allison comes back, but he puts the phone away to grin at her immediately.

“What do you think is up with Lydia and Jackson?” Allison asks. Scott looks over to where Lydia and Jackson are arguing and shrugs.

“Stiles thinks Jackson’s just a tool,” Scott says. Allison laughs, slipping her hand into Scott’s and tugging him towards the exit.

“Stiles is madly in love with Lydia,” Allison says. “He’d think even _you_ were a tool if you tried to date Lydia.”

“No he wouldn’t,” Scott insists. 

“Well, lucky for you I came along and now that will never have to be put to the test,” Allison says. She starts to search for her keys in her handbag, but Scott stops her, putting his hand under her chin and looking deeply into her eyes.

“Yeah?” Scott says hopefully. Allison grins and leans in to kiss him, their lips meeting softly.

“Yeah.”

*  
“So?” Stiles demands, jumping on top of pile of blankets a still mostly asleep Scott is buried under. “How did it go last night?”

Scott shifts until he is able to squint at Stiles, baffled and not quite awake. “Stiles? What time is it?”

“Time? Oh, like seven, maybe eight, I don’t know,” Stiles says dismissively. “Dad woke me before he went to work, said something about not trusting me to remember… anyway, that doesn’t matter. Last night? How did it go?”

Stiles waggles his eyebrows suggestively and Scott laughs, pulling Stiles down for a kiss.

“Wait,” Scott says, pushing Stiles away at the last moment. “You were _there_ last night. You saw how it went.”

“I didn’t see what happened _after_ I left and cleverly maneouvered Allison into giving you a ride home, now then did I?” Stiles says.

“Oh,” Scott says, feeling his cheeks warm and a smile stretch across his face. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Stiles says, grinning. He winks at Scott. 

“Yeah,” Scott repeats softly. Stiles groans, shifting until he has Scott’s hips pinned to the bed and starts tickling him.

“You’re gonna have to give me something more to go on, Scotty,” Stiles says. Scott squirms, but doesn’t move to stop Stiles, even though they both know Scott could have Stiles on his back, helpless to Scott’s mercy without breaking a sweat.

“She requested the next date not have three other people on it,” Scott says. Stiles beams at him, stopping tickling him and sliding his hands up, one resting on Scott’s chest, the other curling around Scott’s throat, Stiles’s thumb stroking the tender skin gently.

“The next date, huh?” Stiles says. “That’s my boy!”

“She also kissed me,” Scott reveals. Stiles lets out a whooping sound and flops his weight forward, until they are lying with their chests pressed together, noses practically touching. Scott laughs, and twists, shoving at Stiles until their positions have been flipped, Stiles stretched out beneath him, the blanket shoved roughly to the side.

“Dude, we have school and I did not bring a change of underwear,” Stiles says, as Scott’s hand wanders down to undo Stiles’s fly. Scott stops immediately, giving Stiles a small pout before rolling off him.

“Allison kissed you, huh?” Stiles says wonderingly. “If we make the team today, you do realize that you will literally be living the high school dream, right?”

Scott laughs, leaning in to kiss the corner of Stiles’s jaw. “Yeah, I suppose I will.”

*  
Allison is waiting by Scott and Stiles’s lockers the next morning, lounging against the metal and idly playing with her phone. Stiles can practically _feel_ the way the whole world lights up when Scott spots her.

“Allison!” Scott says, nearly breathless. Stiles hopes it’s because he’s excited by Allison’s presence and not from the ten feet he jogged to be with her. That would put a serious damper on his chances of making the lacrosse team.

“Hey Scott, Stiles,” Allison says, acknowledging Stiles with a small glance in his direction. 

“What brings you to our lockers this fine morning?” Stiles asks, nudging Scott’s shoulder. “I’m guessing it’s not to witness my traditional pre-first period realising-I-haven’t-done-my-homework dance of doom.”

Allison gives a small laugh, shaking her head. “Nah. Lydia hinted I might want to spend time elsewhere today.”

The words are spoken lightly, but Allison’s eyes have grown dark and mournful. Scott turns to Stiles, panicked, apparently rendered powerless and desperate in the presence of a less than chipper Allison.

“I wouldn’t take it personally,” Stiles says. “It’s probably something to do with Jackson. Lydia really seems to like you, I’ve never seen her spend so much time in the presence of another person without trying to verbally eviscerate them.”

“Yeah?” Allison asks.

“Definitely,” Scott chimes in. “You said they were being weird last night.”

“That’s true,” Allison admits, looking decidedly more cheerful.

“And now you get to spend time with us!” Stiles says enthusiastically, slinging an arm around each of their shoulders. 

*  
If he ignores the hitch in the morning when Allison was briefly upset, the day is easily one of the best in Scott’s life. He spends the whole day with Stiles and Allison, goofing off in class, enjoying an actually edible cafeteria supplied lunch, and generally feeling like nothing in his life could possibly go wrong. Allison is even there when Scott finds out he and Stiles made the lacrosse team, smacking a kiss on his cheek before Coach Finstock realizes she shouldn’t be there and chases her out. Stiles wraps an arm around Scott’s waist, and even Jackson huffing and muttering about standards dropping can do nothing to dampen his good mood.

Especially when he receives a text from Allison saying she wants to take him ice-skating that evening.

*  
The rink is empty when they arrive, and Scott looks at Allison curiously.

“Lydia arranged it,” Allison says, smiling. “I think she’s trying to make up for blowing me off this morning. Have you been ice-skating before?”

“Oh yeah,” Scott says, trying to sound blasé. “All the time.”

Allison hides a smile, handing Scott some skates and bending down to take off her own shoes. When they step onto the ice, Scott manages to remain upright for all of five seconds and Allison’s laughter echoes around the empty space. Scott looks up at her sheepishly and accepts her outstretched hand, standing up carefully.

“All the time, huh?” Allison teases.

“Yeah,” Scott says, flushing. “Just, not, you know, successfully.”

Allison holds firmly onto Scotts hands and starts leading him in a large, slow circle, skating backwards, eyes trained on Scott’s. At first, Scott stares desperately at his feet, not wanting to fall, but about halfway around it must dawn on Scott that he is here, on a date with Allison, his hands held in hers, her eyes trained on him and he finds he doesn’t care about looking stupid or hurting himself. All he can do is stare helplessly at Allison, wonder clear on his face, making her laugh, embarrassed and pleased. 

*  
“And the whole night was just-” Scott says, grinning and waving his lacrosse stick for emphasis.

“Magical, I know,” Stiles says, tossing the ball at Scott. “I’ve never been ice-skating, but don’t worry, I’m getting the message that it’s dreams-do-come-true sort of stuff loud and clear.”

Scott jogs a few yards back before returning the ball. “You should come next time!” he says, eyes lighting up. “Or we could go a few times until you get the hang of it, and then we could go out with Lydia too!”

“Is she talking to Allison again?” Stiles asks. “And how could we get her to come without Jackson?”

“Apparently Lydia felt bad about yesterday, so I guess they are friends again,” Scott says, shrugging. “I think we’re going on another double date.”

“Oh, cool,” Stiles says. “Where to?”

“Lydia made Allison promise not to tell me,” Scott says, sheepish and apologetic. “She seems pretty determined that you don’t come this time.”

Stiles nods. “Yeah, Lydia made it pretty clear best friends don’t tag along on double dates.”

“Sorry,” Scott says. “I’ll talk to Allison about it.”

“S’okay,” Stiles says. “I think Lydia was upset with Jackson and taking it out on me.”

“Yeah,” Scott says. They toss the ball back and forth a few more times and then separate out, spreading themselves across the field to practice throwing from a distance, and catching while running. Scott and Stiles had come in early, wanting to improve their skills and avoid embarrassing themselves in front of the rest of the school. When students started to trickle into the grounds, they packed up and retreated off the field, feeling slightly giddy with their growing prowess. 

“Scott, we may well be the greatest lacrosse players this school has ever seen,” Stiles says.

He slings an arm around Scott’s shoulder, kissing him absently as they enter the locker room.  
Stiles freezes, but it takes a second before he realizes what’s wrong. He doesn’t know if he should say anything, the not-in-public rule has always just been a tacit one.

“Whoops?” Stiles offers. They glance around, but it’s still early and there doesn’t seem to be anyone around. Scott shrugs and grins.

“Come on, we should get changed, I told Allison we were practicing this morning and she should meet us after,” he says. He shoves a finger into Stiles’s side, poking until Stiles squirms away and Scott chases him into the showers.

They lurk around outside the lockers until they are late for homeroom, but Allison does not appear. Stiles keeps an arm wrapped around Scott, hoping to ease his friend’s disappointment. When Allison doesn’t acknowledge their presence in first period, Stiles is at a loss for what he can say to comfort him.

*  
At lunch, Allison appears out of nowhere, all flirty smiles and determined good cheer. Stiles eyes her suspiciously, but Scott softens immediately, beaming back at her.

“I missed you this morning,” Scott says. Stiles groans.

“Yeah?” Allison asks, hesitancy creeping into her voice, cracking her image of nonchalance. It makes Stiles curious about what the hell is going on with Allison, softening his desire to drag Scott away and never let anyone in the world hurt him again.

“Yeah,” Scott says, reaching out to touch Allison’s hand. “I had a really good time last night.”

“He really did,” Stiles says. “Wouldn’t shut up about it all morning.”

Allison gives Stiles a careful look, scrutinising him far more thoroughly than Stiles thought the comment deserved, and he looks steadily back at her. He can’t work out what her deal is. Until now, Allison has seemed to be basically made of sunshine, all open and honest and sweet. Absolutely perfect for Scott. And then she just blows them off this morning? People blowing Stiles off is one thing, he can be too much for some people, he gets that. But Scott is someone Stiles firmly believes should never have to experience sadness, and if Allison continues to do this split personality act, Scott will definitely get hurt. But Scott is so clearly delighted to just be looking at Allison, Stiles can’t really justify the hitman just yet. After a few minutes of silent staring, the absurdity of the situation gets to Stiles, and he laughs.

“I think ‘magical’ was the word he used,” Stiles says, rolling his eyes. “Next time you go, make sure you take pictures. From the way Scott described it, I expect to see small singing woodland creatures.”

Scott punches Stiles in the arm, but Allison relaxes and flashes him a brief, real smile.

“Will do.”

*  
Going on a double date without Stiles seems strange to Scott. Admittedly he has very little experience in the arena of double dating from which he can draw upon, but the whole night feels strangely tense and complicated, from the moment Allison picks scott up.

“Hey,” Scott says grinning, climbing into the car and leaning across, optimistically putting his face in easy kissing distance. Allison flinches slightly and then overcompensates, bumping their foreheads together.

“Ow,” Allison says sheepishly, rubbing her forehead. “Sorry. Hey.”

“Hi,” Scott says, settling back into his seat and pulling his seatbelt on. “So, uh, do you know where we’re going?”

“No,” Allison says. “I mean, yeah, Lydia told me the name of the place, but I haven’t been there before or anything.”

“Right,” Scott says. They fall into an awkward silence that isn’t broken until Allison pulls up into the restaurant’s parking lot and turns off the car.

“Scott,” Allison says, not looking at him. “I’m really glad we’re doing this.”

“Me too,” Scott says. He wants to reach out and touch Allison, but she starts to get out of the car before he can talk his hand into doing it. As they walk towards the restaurant, Allison slides her arm into Scott’s. He has no idea what the weirdness in the car was about, but right here and now, with Allison so close and warm and perfect, his tension melts away and he beams at the expensive looking restaurant in front of them. 

“Is that them?” Allison asks, pointing at a couple sitting at a table near the window, arguing.

“I think so,” Scott says, squinting at them. “Do we go in?”

“I’ll send Lydia a text,” Allison says, pulling out her phone.

“Does that mean we’re going to be standing out here in the dark?” Scott asks.

“I guess?” Allison says. Scott moves in closer to Allison, bumping their shoulders together.

“Will we be safe?” Scott says, looking around with exaggerated concern. “If there’s a vampire lurking around, what are we going to do?”

Allison looks up from her phone, catching Scott’s eye and giving him a mock frown. “I didn’t realize Beacon Hills was full of vampires. I’m afraid I left all of my holy water in San Francisco.”

“A rookie mistake,” Scott says, tutting and shaking his head. Allison shoves him.

“I don’t see you pulling out any garlic or stakes,” Allison says.

“You drove!” Scott protests. “It’s kind of implied that the driver will be bringing the vampire fighting equipment.”

“I’m never going to get the hang of small town customs,” Allison says. Scott leans in.

“If I have to die, I think the least you could do is send me off with a kiss in front of Lydia and Jackson,” Scott says. “They can spread the word of my romantic skills at the funeral.”

“It’s the least they can do for inviting us to a known vampire hangout,” Allison agrees, closing the distance between them, moving her hands to rest on Scott’s hips as she deepens the kiss. They break apart suddenly when Allison’s pocket vibrates.

“Lydia said we need to stop making out and come inside before they vomit,” Allison reports. Scott kisses her on the nose.

“Fine,” he says.

Lydia and Jackson are indeed sitting at the table by the window, and the tension between them is nearly palpable. Once they spot Allison and Scott walking towards them, though, Lydia gives a convincingly bright smile and Jackson smirks at Allison.

“Dinner and a show, wasn’t expecting that,” Jackson says. Scott flushes.

“Jackson,” Lydia hisses.

“There were vampires, what can you do?” Allison says easily, sitting down and tugging Scott down after her.

“Vampires, hey? Maybe we should go back out and make sure the coast is clear?” Jackson says, winking at Allison. “Can’t leave the fine people of Beacon Hills to the mercy of vampires.”

“It’s fine, we handled it,” Scott says, mustering up all of his bravado and slinging an arm over Allison’s shoulder. She stiffens at the contact and he withdraws his arm awkwardly, ignoring the strange looks Lydia and Jackson give them.

For all that the restaurant looks fancy, the food is familiar and the prices are reasonably affordable. Complaining about their classes and discussing the lacrosse team’s chances get them through dinner without any major incidents. The strange tension between Lydia and Jackson never dissipates, and the weirdness from the drive over is back by the time they finish eating.

“Do we want to order dessert?” Lydia asks. 

“Something with whipped cream would be nice,” Jackson says, smirking at Allison. Scott’s chair is as close as physically possible to Allison’s. He isn’t game to try touching her again, so he settles for angling himself towards Allison, his hand resting on the back of her chair.

“I’m really full,” Scott says. “But if we went halves on something that would be nice.”

Allison rolls her eyes. “I want my own dessert, Scott. Not all girls mind letting people see them eat real food.”

“Hear, hear,” Lydia says.

“You can have a bite of mine if you’re going to pout about it,” Jackson says. Scott picks up the dessert menu and hides behind it.

They get separate checks after refusing to let Jackson pay for them all, and Scott stands by awkwardly as Allison and Lydia hug goodbye. They walk out to the car in silence, a feeling of dread rising in Scott’s belly when Allison doesn’t even look at him, ignoring his subtle invitation to hold hands. By the time Allison pulls up into Scott’s driveway, Scott is considering telling Allison Stiles’s theory that balancing chemical equations may help save the world one day, just to break the silence.

“We need to talk,” Allison says. Scott really regrets his hesitation. The theory is solid and much less likely to end with Allison breaking up with him.

“Yeah?” Scott says glumly.

“Look, Scott, I really like you,” Allison says. Her voice is clear and calm and there’s no hint of “I really like you as a friend” or “I really like you but I’d really prefer it if I never saw your face again.” Allison seems to be saying she really likes Scott, because she _does_ really like Scott, and she really _like_ likes him, too.

“Yeah?” Scott says, smiling shyly.

“Yes, you idiot,” Allison says, rolling her eyes and kissing him. Scott grins, relief and happiness filling the little pit of misery that have been growing in his stomach.

“I really like you too,” Scott says.

“Yeah?” Allison says. Scott nods earnestly. “It’s just… I’ve seen you with Stiles. Kissing him. Are you guys dating? Please tell me I’m not your beard. I won’t tell anyone if you aren’t ready to come out, but I can’t keep pretending. I’m falling for you, Scott. Hard.”

“Falling for me?” Scott repeats, awed. 

“Hard,” Allison confirms. “But I saw you kissing Stiles the other morning, when you were going into the locker room.”

“Oh, we don’t usually do that in public,” Scott explains. “I mean, we don’t have a list of rules or anything, but it would be weird if we did stuff like that in public. It’s just we had a really good lacrosse practice and got a bit carried away.”

“So you do kiss Stiles,” Allison says, frowning. “What does that mean about us? Is he your boyfriend?”

“Stiles and I aren’t like that,” Scott says, confused. They had long since realized that their friendship was different to other people’s but Scott had no idea where this talk of boyfriends came from. “We’re just friends.”

“Who kiss,” Allison says, perplexed.

“Yeah,” Scott says. He thinks about it for a moment, trying to work out what else about his friendship with Stiles Allison might find strange. “And sometimes we have sex.”

“Like a friends with benefits thing?” Allison asks, brow creasing.

“I guess?” Scott says. Until now, he’s never really thought about what he and Stiles do. It’s different to other people, but it makes so much sense to them so they don’t worry about it. Giving it a name seems wrong, it’s just part of who they are. 

Allison doesn’t say anything for a long time, and Scott has no idea what he could say to explain how his life had felt like it finally made sense that first time he pulled Stiles into his arms. They had been ten and it had nothing to do with kissing or sex. When that stuff came it was nice, but Scott wouldn’t call it a benefit. It was just a natural extension of being with Stiles. It would seem wrong to be near Stiles and not touch him. Scott has no idea how to tell this this to Allison, so he stays quiet too.

“Right,” Allison says at last, taking a deep breath. “Scott, I really like you and I really want us to together.”

Scott beams, delighted and relieved. “That’s exactly what I want, Allison.”

“So I would be your girlfriend and you would be my boyfriend?” Allison confirms.

It’s quite possible Scott’s smile can now be seen from space. “Yes!”

“And we’d be exclusive. I won’t see anyone else and you won’t either.”

Scott shakes his head vigorously. It makes his stomach feel funny at the thought of being with anyone who isn’t Allison, and he nearly punched Jackson for hitting on Allison the other day. Exclusive is exactly what he wants. This may be the greatest day in Scott’s life. “No, no seeing anyone else. Just you and me. Always.”

“So you’d end things with Stiles?” Allison says, a small smile curving her lips.

“Oh,” Scott says. Allison’s smile falls and Scott wants to kiss her until she’s gasping with laughter, but he doesn’t because right now he’s thinking about kissing Stiles. It’s not something he can imagine giving up. He can’t imagine having to give up kissing Allison either, but he thinks that would feel more like his heart had been cut out. Not being allowed to kiss Stiles would be more like waking up and finding he couldn’t read any more. Or everyone was speaking Portuguese. Or werewolves were real.

“Allison, I really want to be with you, but Stiles is my best friend. I’m not saying no,” Scott adds quickly, hating to see Allison’s eyes fill with hurt. “But I have to talk to him first, and then we can be together.”

Allison nods, reaching out to squeeze Scott’s hand. “That’s fair.”

*  
When Scott wakes up he’s assaulted with conflicting feelings. He’s happy, but he’s sad, excited but disappointed, and he’s very nervous. Normally when things start to feel like too much all Scott wants to do is tangle himself with Stiles and nap or play video games for a few hours. Now, knowing what he has to do when he next sees Stiles, even that escape is lost to him. His phone vibrates and Scott reaches for it, finding a message from Stiles asking how the date went. Steeling himself, Scott texts back to say he’ll be over soon.

“Allison wants to be my girlfriend,” Scott blurts out as soon as Stiles lets him in.

“That’s great!” Stiles says, pulling Scott into a tight hug. “I knew you had it in you, buddy.”

“Yeah,” Scott says. Stiles’s grin fades at Scott’s lack of excitement.

“If you don’t want Allison to be your girlfriend, she doesn’t have to be,” Stiles says. “I know it’s all you’ve talked about since you saw her, but it’s okay to change your mind. I may have to perform a quick exorcism just in case, but if you still don’t want to date her after that I’ll support you.”

Scott manages a laugh and pulls Stiles in for a kiss. 

“She wants to be exclusive,” Scott says.

“That’s good, right?” Stiles says. “You nearly punched Jackson for talking to her the other day, and there’s no one else you like.”

“Well, no,” Scott says. He gestures between them. “But we would have to stop...”

“She doesn’t want you to have friends?” Stiles asks, worried. “Because that’s not really a sign of a healthy relationship.”

“She doesn’t want me kissing my friends,” Scott says. It takes a moment before Stiles realizes what Scott is getting at.

“Oh,” Stiles says. “I hadn’t thought about that. She knows we aren’t dating, right?”

“Yeah,” Scott says. “She said something about friends with benefits.”

Stiles laughs. “Isn’t it funny, I’ve never thought about… what we do. As dating or whatever.”

“No,” Scott says.

“I guess it’s not really what friends do, is it?” Stiles adds. Scott shakes his head. Stiles moves to kiss him and stops halfway. “Wait, what do friends do when their bro is sad?”

“I have no idea,” Scott says, frowning. “You could punch me in the shoulder?”

Stiles makes a fist, placing a small kiss on it before bumping it against Scott’s shoulder. “Did that help?”

Scott shakes his head, and Stiles cups his jaw and kisses him.

“Well, my young padawan, we knew this day would come,” Stiles says, releasing Scott and stepping back. “Well, no, we didn’t, but we probably should have. You’ve found love at last, and she is smoking hot. Go, live the dream.”

Scott pulls Stiles in for a hug. “Thanks bro.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Just thought we’d stop by the girlfriend’s section before the game,” Scott says, beaming at Allison. Stiles waves at Lydia, who rolls her eyes.

“This is not the girlfriend’s section,” Lydia points out.

“Kiss for good luck?” Allison offers, pulling Scott closer.

“This section has the highest density of girlfriends in the crowd,” Stiles says. “Rachel and Katie aren’t talking, and Ryan broke up with Jessica.”

“Please, that was over a week ago,” Lydia says. “They got back together this morning, and Greenberg started dating Cassie yesterday. Which would make their section the girlfriend’s section.”

“Wait, _Greenberg_ landed Cassie?” Stiles asks.

“Cassie is not a plane, Greenberg did not land anything,” Lydia says.

“Yeah, but you have to admit, it’s an unexpected match,” Stiles says. “Cassie is way out of Greenberg’s league.”

“Not everyone dates according to social hierarchies,” Lydia snaps.

“Right, which is why you’re not dating Jackson, the handsome but incredibly douchey captain of the lacrosse team,” Stiles says.

“That is none of your business,” Lydia says, with more venom than Stiles expected. He takes an instinctive step backwards, nearly tripping on the next row of seats. The movement must catch Scott’s attention, tearing him away from making soft eyes at Allison.

“What’s up?” Scott asks, glancing at Lydia before giving Stiles his full attention. Stiles shrugs.

“Nothing, just nervous about the game,” Stiles says. Scott lifts his hand, but aborts the movement, looking at Allison.

“We should get down there,” Scott says.

Stiles nods and they say goodbye to the girls and wander down to the benches, making a point to rest a helmet between them.

“Let’s warm this bench!” Scott says loudly, grinning at Stiles. He still feels weird from the conversation from Lydia, and wishes Scott could have grabbed his shoulder or whatever it was he had gone to do, but damn it all if Scott’s smile can’t still lift his spirits. It feels the same as it did the first time they couldn’t just hug it out, ten years old and separated on the bus by an idiot substitute teacher who thought sitting kids alphabetically was somehow a better system than bus buddies.

*  
“He’s going to keep waving if you smile at him like that every time,” Lydia says. Allison laughs and blows Scott a kiss.

“And that would be bad, why?” Allison asks. Lydia sighs and rolls her eyes.

“You two are ridiculous,” Lydia says.

“We’re pretty adorable,” Allison says, grinning at Lydia. “Sorry, it’s just that it’s all so… new.”

“New?” Lydia asks. “You guys weren’t like this at dinner. What precisely is new? Have you-”

“No!” Allison protests, giggling. “Not yet, anyway. We just had the relationship talk, after dinner. Agreed to be exclusive.”

“You had to agree to be exclusive? Why? Who was tempting your eye?” Lydia asks, keeping her voice too light, too carefully dismissive.

“No one,” Allison assures her. “Scott’s the only one for me.”

“And you were worried that _Scott_ was going to stray?” Lydia asks, dubious.

“It was just a normal are we on the same page conversation,” Allison says, letting annoyance bleed into her tone. It’s better that than letting herself think about how worried she was that Scott was going to pick Stiles over her; how relieved when he told her yes, they could be exclusive. 

For a moment, Allison considers telling Lydia about Scott and Stiles, because she really feels like she needs an outsider's opinion on what happened. Scott had seemed so surprised when Allison asked him to stop seeing Stiles, as though it had never crossed his mind that what he was doing with Stiles wouldn’t be okay if he was seeing someone else. Allison considers herself to be fairly sexually liberal, but this felt like too much. Telling Lydia feels like it would be a betrayal. Careless as they had been to get caught by Allison, Scott definitely made it clear that they try to keep it hidden and it’s over now, so there would be no point in bringing it up. Still, Allison wishes she had someone to talk to about it, she can’t forget the look Scott gave her when she made it clear that he couldn’t date her and sleep with Stiles on the side.

“It’s good to talk in relationships,” Allison says lightly, not wanting to butt into Lydia’s business, but hoping she knows Allison is happy to talk about it.

“Mmm,” Lydia says noncommittally and changes the subject. Allison wonders, just for a second, if Lydia could possibly be in a similar situation, thinking about the offhand comments Jackson has made about Danny. She grins to herself, before dismissing the idea. Danny and Jackson have a very different sort of friendship to Scott and Stiles, much as the idea that Jackson is pining over Danny amuses her, it’s highly unlikely to actually be true.

*  
“I have poptarts, I have donuts and I have the latest Call of Duty, hot off the presses,” Stiles says. Scott groans, blinks groggily at Stiles and then at the boxes that had just been thrown at him.

“Stiles, s’too early,” Scott protests, shutting his eyes and lifting the blanket.

“No such luck, Scotty my boy,” Stiles says cheerfully. “You are a taken man and as such no longer allowed to stay in bed after ten on a Saturday cuddling your best friend. Instead, you are forced to get up and eat huge quantities of sugar and spent countless hours killing enemies and saving the day.”

“Oh, yeah,” Scott says. “Allison.” He smiles at the thought. Stiles gets to work setting up Scott’s Xbox, keeping his eyes averted as Scott drags himself out of bed and into the shower.

When Scott returns, there’s a brief awkward moment when they turn to each other for a kiss before remembering and end up standing slightly too close, not saying anything.

“I guess one of us should use the chair?” Scott says, frowning at his bed. There had never been a time that Stiles was not welcome and wanted in his bed, long before they even really got what sex was, and even after, the bed was used for much more than that. It was a place for comforting when they were stressed, for talking about parents and friends and crushes and movies. During the week it was covered in homework, and over the weekend it was covered in chips and popcorn, which had to be shoved aside so they could crawl under the covers. And yeah most of the time they fooled around, but then they would talk and fall asleep and just be there for each other. A bed where Scott could go but Stiles could not follow was a very strange concept.

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Stiles says. “I’ll take the chair, if you move the TV?”

“Sure,” Scott says, shuffling around Stiles, careful not to let their hands brush or their shoulders knock. 

They play for a few hours, but the fun of the game is dampened by the weird moments of celebration where they go to high five, or kiss or hug and have to pull sheepishly back, mumbling apologies and the sense of victory is lost completely. Melissa drags them downstairs for lunch and at first that feels like it will be better, because they never kiss or cuddle in front of Scott’s mom, but they can’t get comfortable. Scott hesitates too long over whether to steal chips from Stiles’s plate and Stiles can’t work out what he normally does with his hands and feet. They keep moving on him, and Melissa gives him strange looks, telling him to watch it on the sugar and caffeine, asking is he’s still taking his medication.

Under strict orders to do homework, Scott and Stiles trudge back upstairs, but it’s no good. How do people read history textbooks if they can’t put their head in Scott’s lap? And what motivates people enough for math to make sense if Stiles isn’t allowed to kiss them when they get it right, and tickle them until they think they might burst when they get it wrong?

After dinner, Scott and Stiles are too tired and cross to attempt more homework, so they put on a movie. Even that doesn’t help, with Stiles perching uncomfortably on Scott’s chair, and Scott feeling lonely on his too-big bed.

“I’m beat,” Stiles says at the shamefully early time of nine-thirty.

“Yeah, me, too,” Scott says, shuffling over on his bed. “Wait. I guess this means you can’t stay the night.”

“Oh yeah,” Stiles says, dropping the hand that had started to pull off his shirt. “I guess not.”

“Sorry,” Scott murmurs, small and unsure.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Stiles assures him, straining against the urge to go and curl around Scott and kiss him until he smiles again. “It’s just… an adjustment. Other friends manage it, and we are way better than all of them, so we’ll be fine. Just think of Allison.”

“It doesn’t seem fair,” Scott says wistfully. “Losing you to get her. And you don’t even get someone in return.”

“Allison’s not replacing me,” Stiles says, shrugging. “She’s something extra.”

“And what do you get extra?” Scott says.

“Have you seen the way you light up around Allison?” Stiles says, rolling his eyes. “That’s enough for now. And one day I’ll get my own Allison.”

“Lydia?” Scott asks.

“Maybe,” Stiles says. “We’ll see. But it’ll be okay.”

“Yeah,” Scott says. Stiles shoves his hands in his pocket and starts walking to the door. He turns before he leaves.

“Maybe we should not hang out tomorrow? Get used to the whole not-touching thing,” Stiles says. Scott frowns but nods.

“That might be easier.”

*  
“Good afternoon, girlfriend,” Scott says, sliding in next to Allison and brushing a kiss to her cheek.

“Good afternoon, boyfriend,” Allison replies, checking the teacher isn’t looking before pulling Scott in for a proper kiss.

“What the hell are they doing?” Lydia asks Stiles. 

“They’ve been doing it all day,” Stiles says, groaning and putting his head down on the table.

“I’m suddenly relieved I don’t have any other classes with them today,” Lydia says.

Stiles lifts his head. “It’s not just going to be today,” he says.

“Oh?” Allison asks, dropping one last kiss on Scott’s nose before turning to Stiles.

“Oh no, my friend,” Stiles says. “But don’t think it won’t wear off. He called me nothing but best friend when we first met, for over a week. Our teacher sat us down with our parents to make us stop.”

“Can we have that intervention now?” Lydia asks. “I have double history with them tomorrow and I don’t think you’re allowed to keep a perfect GPA if you kill two of your classmates.”

“Can you for killing one?” Stiles asks. Lydia rolls her eyes.

“I’ll look into it,” she says, smiling sweetly at Stiles. “I’m sure they would make an exception for you.”

“Stiles would never kill me,” Scott says confidently.

“I don’t think Lydia is talking about Stiles doing the killing,” Allison says.

“Oh,” Scott says. He goes to move closer to Stiles, fling a protective arm around him when he remembers that he can’t. They fall into an awkward silence, not speaking for the rest of the period.

*  
By Wednesday afternoon, Stiles is beginning to think he hates everything.

“I hate everything,” he announces as he storms into the living room. His dad looks up from his newspaper.

“Practice didn’t go well, I take it?” John asks.

“I sat on a bench, not even I can screw that up,” Stiles says, flopping down on the couch.

“Lydia still not in love with you?” his dad says. Stiles glares at his amused tone.

“No less than usual,” Stiles admits.

“Keeping on top of your grades?” John asks.

“Yeah, they’re fine,” Stiles says. “I just hate everything. Can’t a guy hate everything for no reason?”

“Then this is about Scott.” John puts down the newspaper and gives Stiles a serious look.

“What about Scott?” Stiles asks, confused. “He’s fine, great as always. Sickeningly adorable with Allison, keeps his side of the bench toasty and sucks the usual amount at math.” Stiles sits up suddenly as a thought strikes him. “He is okay, isn’t he? There’s nothing wrong with Scott? Ms McCall hasn’t told you he’s dying of some horrible disease, right?”

“He’s fine, Stiles, healthy as a horse as far as I’m aware,” John assures him. “I meant the whole your best friend has a girlfriend thing.”

“You think I’m upset about Allison? She and Scott are perfect together,” Stiles says, frowning. “I drove them to their first date, even set it up so they would be alone, which, by the way, lead to their first kiss.”

“I’m not saying you’re not supportive,” John says. “It’s just that you and Scott have been joined at the hip since you first met and now he has a girlfriend. That changes things.”

“I know,” Stiles says glumly.

“Change doesn’t have to be bad,” John says gently. “You’ve been moping around the house since Saturday like the world has ended and you’re just been waiting for them to clear your body away. Change is hard, but things will settle and you’ll work out where you fit in Scott’s life again, soon, I promise.”

“If you say so,” Stiles says, shrugging and dragging himself upstairs.

*  
With a great put upon sigh, Stiles collapses into the chair next to Scott. They exchange a mournful glance as they shuffled their seats slightly further away from each other. Scott moves a textbook between them.

“Four pages on Kennedy,” Stiles says, keeping his voice low, not wanting to catch the attention of the librarian. He pulls out a pen and sticks it in his mouth.

“Yeah,” Scott says sadly, staring at his notebook. He drops his head onto the desk and Stiles twists his hands together, to stop himself from reaching out and rubbing Scott’s neck.

“Going well, then, I take it?” Allison says, grinning at Stiles and brushing a hand over Scott’s shoulder. Scott looks up and manages a soft smile for Allison, pulling her in for a quick kiss.

“Tell me you brought some form of caffeine and/or sugar,” Stiles says urgently.

“Stiles,” Allison scolds, sliding a hand into her bag. “You know we can’t have food and drinks in the library.”

Allison slides Stiles a packet of twizzlers and he nods his appreciation. He slides into the next chair over, leaving the spot between him and Scott free for Allison. 

“So what do you guys have so far?” Allison asks.

They talk half-heartedly about their essays, but after about ten minutes, whatever stimulation Allison had provided has worn off. Both Stiles and Scott have their heads on the desk. Scott mumbles and grunts answers to Allison’s question, but Stiles just shuts his eyes and tunes them out.

*  
“I’m not hungry!” Scott calls out in response to his mom’s summons for dinner on Friday night. He tucks himself more securely under his covers and restarts his game.

“Scott you need to eat.” Scott jumps slightly, not expecting his mother to have come up to see him.

“I’m not hungry,” Scott says, frowning. Melissa walks over to the TV and turns it off, before sitting next to Scott and tugging the controller out of his hand.

“You’ve been acting off all week,” Melissa says, brushing his hair back and pressing her palm to his forehead. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine, Mom,” Scott says.

“I haven’t seen Stiles for a while, you two have a fight?” Melissa asks.

“No,” Scott says. “We’re fine.”

“You still seeing Allison?” Melissa says.

“Yeah,” Scott says.

“And that’s all fine?” Melissa says.

“Yeah,” Scott says with a sigh. “It’s fine.”

“This isn’t a sex thing, is it?” Melissa says. “Please don’t tell me it’s a sex thing. I mean, tell me if there’s a burning-”

“Nothing’s burning!” Scott says, flushing. He sits up. “Allison’s really great mom, I really like being with her and there’s no sex thing, and nothing itches or burns.”

“What about oozing? Is anything oozing?” Melissa asks, her facade of concern somewhat cracked by her grin.

“No!” Scott says, blushing but laughing. “Nothing oozes either.”

“What about jiggling? Anything moving about that should stay still?” Melissa asks.

“What does that even mean, Mom?” Scott says, shoving playfully at her.

“But seriously, this hypothetical sex you’re not having for ten years? You have protection?” Melissa says.

“Mom,” Scott protests.

“You know how to be safe? You know you don’t have to go through with it? Either of you can back out at any time?” Melissa says. “And if something does go wrong, or even if it’s fine, you can talk to me, or I can make an appointment for you to talk to someone else?”

“Yes, Mom,” Scott says patiently. “No means no, we both have to want it, there needs to be something to stop you from getting grandchildren early and there needs to be something to stop me from getting STIs. I get it, I have had the safe sex talk from you and the school and I get it, I promise.”

“Good,” Melissa says. “I know we joke around about it, but I don’t want you to think sex is a taboo topic in this household. If you’re having it or wanting to have it, I want you to feel like you can talk to someone about it. And Stiles doesn’t count.”

Melissa kisses Scott on the forehead. “And I want you to feel you can talk to me about other stuff, too. It’s just you and me around here, kiddo. Well, you, me and Stiles if I don’t change the locks.”

Scott nods, an unexpected lump forming in his throat. 

“Hey, I’m not going to lock Stiles out,” Melissa says. “That’s not why he hasn’t been around lately, is it? He’s always welcome, here, you know that.”

“Yeah, Mom, I do,” Scott says thickly. “Thanks.”

“Of course.” Melissa stands up and smiles to him at the door. “I love you, Scott. Stiles, too. You’re my boys.”

“Yeah,” Scott says. “Love you too.”

*  
“Hey, you okay?” Allison asks, squeezing Scott’s hand. “You were really excited to see the snakes.”

“I’m fine,” Scott says. “They’re just not as interesting as I thought they would be.”

“Yeah, I thought they might be swallowing small children whole, or something, but no, just napping away,” Allison says.

“That’s not funny,” Scott says, frowning.

“Sorry, I was just joking,” Allison says. “They don’t really feed the snakes kids. I’m pretty sure snakes don’t eat people. I think they eat smaller animals.”

“Yeah, no, I get it,” Scott says. He looks over at the reptiles basking in the sunshine. “They sleep like 90% of the day or something, so I don’t know what I was expecting.”

“Is everything okay?” Allison asks. “You’ve been acting kind of weird lately.”

“I’m fine,” Scott says shortly. “Sorry, no, I’m fine.”

“Is everything okay with us?” Allison asks. Scott blinks and straightens, reaching for Allison’s other hand.

“Yes, of course, things are great with us,” Scott says. “Unless you don’t think things are great?”

“I thought things were fine, but the last couple of days you’ve been all moody,” Allison says. “And you just snapped at me twice over nothing. What’s wrong?”

Scott looks long at hard at Allison, before sighing and admitting, “I just miss Stiles.”

“What?” Allison asks, confused. “We just saw him this morning. And I asked if he wanted to come with us, he was the one who said no. He was actually kind of rude about it.”

“Yeah, sorry, I’ll talk to him, but I think he’s having a harder time with this than me,” Scott says. “I don’t think I’ve ever gone so long without hugging him.”

“Wait, this is about hugging?” Allison asks, confused. “You’re not like, wishing you had picked him over me?”

“What? No! Of course not,” Scott says. He leans in to kiss Allison, cupping her jaw in his hand moving their mouths together, tenderly. “I’m so happy that you’re my girlfriend! When you asked me to be your boyfriend it was like one of the happiest moments of my life.”

“I’m glad,” Allison says. “I feel the same way.”

Allison slides her hands around Scott’s waist and they kiss for longer than is strictly decent in a public area, but neither of them can find it in them to care.

“So what’s the problem with Stiles?” Allison asks, when they finally break apart. Scott’s smile fades.

“I just miss high fiving him when he gets past a new level, or hugging him when I get stuff right on my maths homework,” Scott says. “And it’s weird having to sit so far away from him on the bench.”

“You’re still allowed to touch Stiles,” Allison says slowly. “Friends touch all the time. You’ve seen Lydia and I hug.”

“Oh,” Scott says. He smiles. “Oh yeah, that’s true. So why is that okay? And what’s not okay?”

“Hugs and high fives and sitting next to each other is what friends do,” Allison says. “It’s kissing, and touching more intimately that’s reserved for romantic relationships. Would you be okay with me kissing Lydia? With having sex with her?”

“I dunno,” Scott says slowly. He knows he doesn’t mind Allison hugging Lydia, and he thinks it’s nice that they sit really close and lean on each other to whisper secrets. The sort of things you do with a really good friend. But what’s the difference between a really good friend and a girlfriend? He tries to imagine Allison kissing Lydia, kissing her like she kisses him and he can’t, not without feeling a weird, hot sort of jealousy. Only, it’s partly because he’s thinking about Allison kissing Lydia instead of him. Lydia replacing him. That’s what hurts about the picture in his mind. If he thinks about Allison kissing Lydia, but still wanting to go out with him, he finds he doesn’t really mind. “I think maybe it would be okay. If it was Lydia, because she’s your best friend and I was still your boyfriend. I think that would be fine.”

“Really?” Allison asks. “This isn’t some weird lesbian fantasy, right? Like, you’re not picturing yourself being there, too?”

“No,” Scott says quickly, scrunching up his nose. “I don’t want to… see anything.”

“Right, but what about Jackson? What would you be okay with me doing with Jackson?” Allison asks.

Scott shudders. “I don’t even like it when he hugs you, sometimes,” Scott admits.

“Why?” Allison asks, squeezing his hand encouragingly.

“He gets this look on his face, sort of leers at me, like he thinks it’s more than a hug,” Scott says.

“Exactly,” Allison says. “I may need to get Lydia to yell at him, but that’s a perfect example. You don’t like it because he tries to turn it into a sexual thing, and when you’re exclusive, that stuff is for between the couple only. So I don’t mind if you touch Stiles, as long as it’s not like kissing or anything sexual.”

“That makes sense,” Scott says. He grins at her. “They’re meant to have a king cobra in around here, somewhere.”

*  
“Stiles!” Scott calls out, walking though Stiles’s kitchen.

“Scott?” Stiles replies, his voice coming from upstairs.

“Stay there, I’ll come to you,” Scott yells, running to the stairs, beaming to himself.

“Scott?” Stiles asks as Scott pulls open the door, but Scott throws him at Stiles instead of answering. They tumble back onto Stiles back and move easily together, tucking and twisting themselves until it is difficult to tell where one starts and the other ends. For a long time, they just lie together, clinging and breathing, feeling the tensions of the week melt away.

“Scott,” Stiles says tentatively, stroking a hand down Scott’s side. “Is everything okay? Have you broken up with Allison?”

“No,” Scott says, twisting until he can see Stiles’s face. “But apparently friends are allowed to hug.”

“That’s great news, Scotty!” Stiles says, pulling Scott back in close. “So this is okay?”

“This is okay,” Scott confirms. “We can touch as much as we want, as long as it isn’t kissing or anything sexual or anything you would only do with a girlfriend. Or boyfriend, I guess.”

“That makes sense,” Stiles says, sighing contentedly and nuzzling into Scott’s shoulder.

*  
On Sunday morning, Scott and Allison come over to Stiles house to make another attempt at starting their history assignments.

“Yes! That’s it exactly!” Stiles says, grinning and hugging Scott so aggressively they fall off the bed. Allison laughs and throws a pillow at Stiles.

“Hey, I made the link to the cold war in my paper, where’s my hug?” Allison demands. Stiles gives Allison a careful glance, his face deliberately smooth. 

“What do you think, Scotty?” Stiles asks. “Apparently she’s been holding out on us.”

Scott grabs a pillow and they lunge for Allison, ignoring her shrieks of protest. 

“Aren’t you meant to be on my side?” Allison asks, panting and she tries to fend off Stiles’s attack and go for Scott’s open side at the same time.

“Don’t listen to her, Scott!” Stiles says. “She’ll just turn on you once I’m out, at least if you stick with me there’s a chance you will win!”

Allison pulls Stiles’s pillow out of his hand and throw it across the room. As soon as Stiles turns to chase after it, she wrestles Scott onto the bed, sitting across his thighs and pinning down his shoulders.

“Truce?” Scott asks, smiling sheepishly. Allison grins and leans down to kiss him.

“Deal,” Allison says. She lets Scott up, and he pulls the quilt from the bed. Allison pelts Stiles with pillows as Scott pounces on Stiles with the blanket, wrapping him and dragging him over to the bed, throwing him down.

“Victory!” Scott declares, only to be knocked down and pinned once more by Allison.

“Stiles was right,” Allison says, grinning and kissing him again. 

“He usually is,” Stiles says, struggling out of the quilt. “It’s a pity so few people realize his true genius until it is too late. Keep this in mind for the future, friends. Stiles is always right.”

Scott rolls his eyes and shoves Stiles’s shoulder. A tinny wolf howl goes off in the room.

“That’s my phone,” Allison says, rolling off Scott with a sigh.

“It howls?” Stiles asks.

“Only when my parents text from the ‘don’t-ignore-me-young-lady’ phone,” Allison says. “It’s programmed to always go off when that number tries to contact me, even if it’s on silent or turned off. If there’s any battery left in it, it will go off. My cousin rigged it up.”

“Don’t tell my dad about it,” Stiles says. “It’s possible I’ve used the ‘I keep it on silent so I don’t get in trouble at school’ about the same number of times I’ve told him I turned it off to conserve batteries for an emergency. I should never have taught him to text.”

Allison reads her text and groans. “I have to go, apparently there’s some family emergency I need to attend to.”

“They didn’t say what?” Scott asks. Allison shakes her head.

“Apparently you should never text specific details,” Allison says. “I swear, my parents are convinced the government is out to get them, or aliens are just waiting to hear which hospital my Aunt’s be rushed to.”

“Hospital?” Scott asks, concerned. “Is it usually that serious?”

“No,” Allison says, sighing. “It’s only been that sort of thing twice before. Usually it’s some chore they’ve decided I am now in charge of or they need help carrying something heavy. This time I suspect it’s a get Allison home before she gets knocked up sort of an emergency.”

Stiles snorts. “They have seriously overestimated the stamina of a teenage boy. Pretty sure you don’t need two hours to get someone pregnant.”

“Thanks for that disturbing insight into your ideas about romance and seduction,” Allison says, laughing. “If someone is knocking me up I will expect more than quick tumble in the hay.”

“Are you sure you can’t stay?” Scott asks, giving her an entreating look. “I promise no hay.”

“No,” Allison says. “It might be something serious. Even if it isn’t, if I don’t show up you can bet I’ll be grounded from now until next year. The take this sort of stuff really seriously.”

“Okay,” Scott says sadly. Allison gives him an apologetic kiss and hugs Stiles before she heads for the door.

“Sorry, guys,” Allison says. “See you in the morning?”

“In front of Scott’s locker,” Stiles confirms. “I’ll be the one doing a dance of panic, it’s chem first thing.”

“Worst,” Allison sympathises. “I may dance with you.”

Once Allison is gone, Stiles looks around the room, picking up his scattered sheets of work.

“Lost cause?” Stiles says. Scott nods.

“Pizza and a movie?” Scott suggests.

They make a half-hearted attempt at straightening Stiles’s room, but give up on the venture after the third time they end up wrestling on Stiles’s bed and there’s an awkward boner situation.

“I’ll uh, order the pizza if you want to pick a movie?” Stiles offers, scooting across the bed. Scott follows him easily, nudging their shoulders together.

“Sure,” Scott says, making a fist and kissing it before punching Stiles’s arm. Stiles laughs and tries to shove Scott off the bed.

“And I’m not watching the new Star Trek again,” Stiles warns, hopping off his bed to fetch his phone. 

Stiles’s dad comes home halfway through the movie.

“So you two have worked it out, then?” he asks, jerking his head at them, acknowledging the way they are curled up together.

“We weren’t fighting,” Stiles says, rolling his eyes. “And don’t try to distract me, I see you eyeing off our popcorn. There’s some unsalted, fat-free popcorn in the kitchen if you want some.”

“I can’t believe I spend my days keeping the likes of you safe,” John says. “And what do I get for my troubles? Unsalted, fat-free popcorn. Never mind, I’m going to take a shower and then see if there’s a kid swap website that would accept you.”

“Feeling the love, Dad,” Stiles says. John grins at him and leaves. Scott reaches for the popcorn, but Stiles snatches it away.

“Maybe I should be feeding you flavorless popcorn, too,” Stiles says, musingly. He pokes Scott in the side and barely manages to put the popcorn down safely before Scott rolls him off the couch. Stiles surges up quickly and flops on top of Scott. They exchange a brief kiss before Stiles shuffles down to rest his head on Scott’s chest.

“Stiles, the popcorn,” Scott says mournfully and Stiles huffs, sitting up and reaching for the bowl before collapsing back down on Scott.

*  
When Stiles wakes the next morning, there is an ominous text from Scott, telling him to come over before school. To act as a human alarm clock, apparently.

“Scott,” Stiles says, reaching under the covers to pull at Scott’s foot. “Scott, you need to wake up.”

Scott groans and tries to pull his foot away.

“Not happening, man,” Stiles says, tightening his grip. “You sent me a text at like four in the morning demanding I come see you before school. What’s up?”

“Stiles?” Scott manages, rubbing his eyes. “What time is it?”

“Time you explain what had you up at four in the morning,” Stiles says, releasing Scott’s foot with a sharp pat. “Is your neighbor’s cat in heat again?”

“No,” Scott says. He squints at Stiles for a moment and then sits up, paling. “Stiles! Yesterday, we kissed!”

Stiles frowned. “Did we?”

“On the couch, during the movie,” Scott says.

“Oh yeah,” Stiles says. 

“Stiles!” Scott says urgently. “Allison!”

“Oh shit,” Stiles says. “Dude, I am so sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Scott says. “It was both of us. I have have to tell her.”

“Yeah,” Stiles says. “But it was an accident, she’ll forgive you. We’re just not used to not being able to kiss.”

“Yeah,” Scott says slowly. He chews his lip for a moment, not meeting Stiles eye. “It was nice, though.”

“It was,” Stiles agrees quietly.

“I miss getting to do that,” Scott says. “I don’t want that to be the last time we kiss.”

“Me neither,” Stiles says. Scott looks up at him.

“But I don’t want to give up Allison, either,” Scott says.

“That would suck,” Stiles says. “You two are perfect together.”

“Yeah,” Scott says miserably.

*  
Scott spends enough time with Allison before homeroom to ask her to meet at his house after school and then spends the rest of the day carefully avoiding her. He hides out with Stiles at lunch and in the breaks, and arrives late to the classes he shares with Allison, burying himself in textbooks and doodling intently. By three o’clock, Scott is nearly beside himself with nerves, swinging between guilt for what he did and wants to do with Stiles, and despair at the thought that he might have to actually give it up for good. The prospect hadn’t seemed so bad when Allison first said that’s what it meant to be dating, and he hadn’t realized how much having Stiles as more than a friend meant to him until yesterday. 

When the final bell goes at last, Scott barely acknowledges Stiles wishing him good luck before he tears home. His mom isn’t home yet, so Scott is free to pace in front of the door until Allison arrives.

“Scott?” Allison says, startled, her hand reaching for the doorbell. “Scott, what’s wrong? I haven’t seen you all day?”

“Come in,” Scott says, gesturing Allison towards the living room. “I need to talk to you.”

“Scott, what’s this about?” Allison asks, grabbing Scott’s arm.

“Can we sit?” Scott asks.

“Sure,” Allison says warily, dropping Scotts arm and sitting on the couch. Scott drops into the armchair next to her. “Scott, you’re getting me really worried.”

“I need to talk to you, about Stiles,” Scott says. “And I need you to listen and not just get mad.”

“Of course I’ll listen,” Allison says. “What happened. Is he okay? Did you sleep with him?”

“No,” Scott says. “I mean, he’s fine. We didn’t sleep together. But we did kiss.”

“Oh,” Allison says. “Did you mean to? Did he kiss you or did you kiss him?”

“We just sort of kissed each other,” Scott says. “We were mucking around and it just sort of happened. We didn’t even notice, or, well, we didn’t notice that we did something wrong.”

“Oh,” Allison says. “That’s not… ideal, but I guess if it was just an accident-”

“Allison, wait,” Scott says. “It _was_ just an accident, but I know what you’re going to say and I don’t want to just apologize and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I mean, I am sorry, I know we agreed I wouldn’t kiss Stiles anymore, and I did and I’m sorry. But I don’t want to give up what I have with Stiles.”

“Is this… Are you breaking up with me?” Allison asks, sounding hurt and confused.

“No,” Scott says. “No, I want to be with you, Allison, really. I just don’t want to have to give up Stiles to do it.”

“I don’t know, Scott,” Allison says slowly. “I don’t want to break up with you, but I just don’t know how that would work. I don’t want to have to compete with Stiles for you.”

“It wouldn’t be a competition,” Scott insists. “Stiles loves that we’re together. Nothing much would have to change, we would still go on dates and I would still hang out with Stiles, and sometimes all three of us would hang out, or we’d go out with Lydia and Jackson.”

“It’s not just competing for your time I’m talking about,” Allison said. “Being someone’s girlfriend is meant to be special, we’re meant to be there for each other emotionally and support each other in things.”

“We would,” Scott says. “Stiles would just be there too.”

“I found it really upsetting when I saw you and Stiles kiss,” Allison reminds him.

“I know,” Scott says, frowning. “And I find it upsetting when Jackson flirts with you. But that’s because he’s a jerk, I told you I wouldn’t mind if it was someone like Lydia. I just... did you find it upsetting because I hadn’t told you? Because you thought I was using you as a beard? Because you thought I was going to dump you for Stiles? Because if that’s all it was, then that’s fine.”

“I don’t know, Scott,” Allison says. “Look, I’m not mad with you, but I don’t know. I need some time to think.”

Scott nods. “Yeah, of course. This is a lot to ask you.”

Allison nods. “I don’t know how long this is going to take me to work out.”

“No,” Scott says. “Take as long as you need.”

“Thanks,” Allison says. She stands and he follows, walking her to the door. “Can I kiss you before I go?”

“Yes,” Scott says, smiling in surprised delight. Allison wraps her arms around Scott, giving him a quick chaste kiss and a tight hug.

“I really want things to work between us,” Allison says.

“Me too,” Scott says. 

“I’ll call you when I’m ready to talk,” Allison says.

“Thank you,” Scott says. He kisses her cheek. “It means a lot to me that you’re willing to think about this, whatever you decide.”

Allison nods slowly before saying, “You’re welcome,” and walking out of the door.


	4. Chapter 4

Allison walks slowly out to her car, feeling lost and confused and a little numb. She hadn’t expected this, for Scott to kiss Stiles again, for him to tell her he didn’t want to stop kissing Stiles. Didn’t want to stop kissing Stiles, but didn’t want to give her up either. For a moment, Allison wishes that she hadn’t seen them kiss in the first place. As though that would fix things now. But of course, not knowing wouldn’t help her, if anything it would only make it worse. How long would it have gone on until Scott told her or she found out some other way? How much more devastating to find out after she was with Scott for six months or a year that he had been seeing Stiles behind her back the whole time.

For several long minutes, Allison stares at the handle to her door. Was it still Stiles being seen behind her back when he had apparently been with Stiles for longer than she had? Or was it Allison Scott was seeing behind Stiles’s back, even though Stiles knew and had encouraged them? Allison shook her head and climbed into her car. The whole situation was proving once again to be far more complicated than she had expected.

*  
Texting Scott, as far as Stiles was concerned, was basically why cell phones had been invented. It was certainly the heart of the impassioned speech he had given his father on the reasons he should be given a phone for an early fourteenth birthday present. It was just a pity that his father had apparently thought they were a good safety device and cut Stiles off three minutes into his detailed list of the things he could text Scott - whose father had sent a phone in lieu of a visit the week before.

The phone was sitting with arm’s reach and Stiles was desperate to find out how Scott’s conversation with Allison went. Yet every time he so much as inched a finger towards it, Stiles felt a wave of guilt rush over him, and he withdrew once more.

*  
“Scott!” Melissa says, touching her hand to her heart. “You scared me. Were you waiting for me to come home?”

“No,” Scott says, shaking his head. He had been staring at the door ever since Allison left, not sure what to do. Part of him wanted to go racing after her and make sure they were okay, but he couldn’t do that because they _weren’t_ okay. Not right now. And the only way things could be fixed instantly between them would be if he agreed to stop seeing Stiles, and he couldn’t do that. Not if there was a chance he could have both of them.

“Is everything all right?” Melissa asks, reaching out to brush Scott’s hair back.

“Yeah,” Scott says, ducking out of her reach. “Just got distracted.”

Melissa raised an eyebrow at Scott. “Distracted by the door?”

“I was just thinking,” Scott says. He hadn’t wanted to go back upstairs to his room. Everything there made him think of Stiles and he would want to text Stiles and tell him what happened, or ask him to come over. It wasn’t that he couldn’t talk to Stiles, Allison hadn’t asked that of him, but it still felt wrong to do so. He couldn’t reassure Stiles everything was going to be okay because he didn’t know if everything would be okay. And he felt too guilty to allow himself to be comforted by Stiles, not when he had managed to hurt both Allison and Stiles and leave them in this mess.

So he had stood and waited by the door, quietly wishing things would just work out.

“Thinking about…” Melissa prompts.

Scott shrugs. “School. Stuff. You know.”

“Is ‘you know’ a pretty young brunette?” Melissa says. Scott shrugs again. “Would it help if we got take-away, watched a movie and didn’t talk about it?’

Scott smiles. “Yeah.”

*  
No matter how Allison looks at it, nothing seems to add up. Scott had chosen her, which had to mean something. He said he would give up Stiles to be with her, he spent a week not so much as touching his best friend because he thought it was what she wanted. Surely that was a good sign for their relationship.

But, Allison thinks, he couldn’t follow through. He moped for a week because he couldn’t be with Stiles, and he kissed him within a day of them agreeing that wasn’t something he should do if he wanted to be with Allison. It was one thing when he hadn’t known that Allison expected exclusivity, she had accepted that and wasn’t hurt by the thought of that, not any more, but this was different. She can’t work out how this happened.

For a brief moment, Allison lets herself think Stiles is just using Scott, but she has to dismiss the thought almost right away. That’s not what Stiles and Scott are to each other at all. Even before she knew they were sleeping together, Allison had recognized they were close, closer than any friends she had ever seen before. If Stiles had been a girl, Allison acknowledges, she probably would have thought they were dating, or on the verge of something like that.

So where does that leave her? She knows Scott cares for her, but she knows that he cares for Stiles, too. He clearly wants to be with her, and he had been willing to give Stiles up to do that, but now he says he doesn’t want to.

Allison lets out a frustrated groan. She’s getting nowhere and needs to get out of her head. She wanders downstairs and helps her mom cook dinner, spends the evening with her dad helping sort and clean a new shipment they had just received. It doesn’t get her any closer to sorting out what to do with Scott, but it’s a nice distraction.

*  
The week drags by slowly. Lydia quickly picks up that something weird is going on between Allison and Scott and acts as a buffer, subtly herding Allison around the school out of Scott’s way and doesn’t ask questions. It’s not until Wednesday that Lydia realizes that Scott and Stiles must be avoiding each other too. They run into Stiles despite following a route designed to miss Scott. Stiles and Allison bump heads as they both automatically reach down to pick up Allison’s dropped books.

“Oh, hey,” Stiles says, rubbing the back of his neck as he straightens. “I’m sorry, I didn’t… I didn’t see you.”

“It’s okay,” Allison says, rearranging the books in her arms and not meeting his eyes.

“Are we okay?” Stiles asks and then frowns. “No, sorry, I shouldn’t ask that. That’s not fair. I just… I’m sorry and I think you should know it was my fault too. Or mostly, probably, I was the one didn’t pay any attention, who didn’t even notice.” Stiles glances awkwardly at Lydia. “So yeah. I’m sorry and I hope we can be okay. I didn’t mean to hurt you, or hurt… anything.”

Allison glances up, looking wistfully at Stiles and pressing her lips together. She gives a small nod. “I know.”

They fall into an uncomfortable silence.

“I’m glad we cleared that up,” Lydia says when it’s clear no one else is going to speak, looking curiously between the two. “If that’s all, we should be getting to class.”

Stiles startles and takes a half-step back. “Yeah. That’s all, I guess.”

Once they’re out of earshot, Lydia turns to Allison. “Was it just me or was Stiles being weirder than normal?”

Allison shrugs and Lydia lets the subject drop.

*  
By Friday evening, Allison isn’t any closer to working out what she wants and what she thinks and what’s she’s going to do. She’s tired of going around and around in her head, thinking she can’t be with someone who wants someone else, knowing she doesn’t want to lose Scott, and unable to shake the memory of the look on Stiles’s face as he told her he wants them to be okay, that he didn’t want to hurt her. She doesn’t have a clue what she’s supposed to feel about that. It’s reached the point where she can’t stand to be in her head a moment longer, so she tells her parents she’s going out and will be back before curfew.

 

“Is this a bad time?” Allison asks when Lydia answers the door.

“No, it’s perfect. My parents are out of town, and Jackson’s out with his friends. Come in,” Lydia says. “Do you want something to eat?”

“Ice cream?” Allison suggests, following Lydia into the kitchen.

Lydia cocks her head and smiles. “Are we about to have a talk about boys?”

“A girls can’t just want ice cream?” Allison says, smiling despite herself.

“Not when that girl has just spent a week avoiding her boyfriend,” Lydia informs her. She pulls out a tub of ice cream and starts loading up two bowls. “So do I finally get to hear the story behind this?”

“Yeah,” Allison says, feeling sheepish. Of course Lydia had picked up on what was happening. “It’s kind of complicated.”

“Yeah?” Lydia asks, handing Allison her ice cream. Allison plays with her spoon for a while before saying,

“So you know how Scott and Stiles are really good friends?”

Lydia rolls her eyes. “Somehow I haven’t missed that.”

Allison lets out a small laugh. She chews her lip for a few moments before blurting out, “They’re kind of more than just friends.”

Lydia’s eyes widen. “You mean Scott and Stiles…”

“Are sleeping together,” Allison confirms.

“Even though you and he and together?” Lydia asks, frowning.

“No,” Allison says quickly. “Well, they were and… it’s complicated.”

“Did you know?” Lydia asks. “When you guys started dating?”

Allison shakes her head. “I saw them kissing one day after we started going out and confronted Scott about it. Apparently they didn’t see what they do as dating, so he didn’t see it as cheating. But he stopped when I asked him too,” Allison hastens to add as Lydia’s expression grows outraged. “Only when they stopped, they both became miserable and then on Monday Scott told me they had slipped up.”

“Slipped up?” Lydia asks. “They slept together?”

Allison shakes her head. “They just kissed. Scott said it was an accident, an old habit, which would have been fine, except he said it make him realize he doesn’t want to have to give up Stiles.”

“He dumped you?” Lydia asks, surprised.

“No,” Allison says. “He said he wants to keep seeing us both.”

“Wow,” Lydia says. “I did not see any of this coming.”

“Me neither,” Allison says ruefully. They pick thoughtfully at their ice cream.

“What does Stiles think about all of this?” Lydia asks.

“I haven’t really talked to him, but he’s always been really excited about me and Scott,” Allison says. “I think he would be fine with Scott dating both of us.”

“He doesn’t want to date you too, does he?” Lydia asks.

Allison frowns. “I don’t think so.”

“Huh,” Lydia says.

“Yeah,” Allison says.

“So what are you thinking?” Lydia asks. “Would you be okay with Scott dating you and Stiles at the same time?”

“I don’t know,” Allison says. “I really don’t want to lose Scott, but I don’t know if I can do this. It hurt so much when I first saw them together.”

Lydia makes a thoughtful noise, sucking slowly on her spoon before saying, “Jackson and I broke up for about a month last year. He started seeing Elysa Richards and it made me so furious. She wasn’t good enough for him, she was stupid and too tall and I even hated the fact that she had a mole on her left cheekbone. God I hated her. I walked in on them making out in a classroom one lunch break and I nearly screamed. I was so angry and hurt and jealous. Elysa Richards stole my boyfriend and as far as I was concerned, that was grounds for me to exact horrible, gruesome revenge.”

“What happened?” Allison asks. Lydia shrugs.

“They broke up within a week of getting together and Jackson and I worked things out,” Lydia says. 

Allison nods, stirring her ice cream absently. She doesn’t hate Stiles, she can’t imagine hating Stiles, not really, not even when she had first thought he was going to keep Scott from her.

“I mostly felt upset that Scott might be using me as a beard,” Allison says. “Or that it meant Scott didn’t really like me.”

“Well, you’re a much nicer person than me,” Lydia says, grinning at her. Allison laughs. “How do you feel about him now? I mean, you know that Scott genuinely does want you, does that change anything?”

“I guess?” Allison says. She sighs. “It doesn’t really bother me that Scott wants to be with Stiles, it’s just I sort of feel like he should only want me. I shouldn’t have to settle for someone who wants more than just me.”

“You know, monogamy’s not the norm in a lot of societies,” Lydia says. “It’s fine if you only want to be with someone who wants you exclusively, but it’s not settling if you go for someone who wants someone else too. It’s only settling if that’s not what you want.”

Allison hums noncommittally.

“At least this explains why Scott and Stiles have been acting strangely all week,” Lydia says lightly. “In all the years I’ve known them, I’ve never seen them go so long apart.”

“They haven’t been hanging out?” Allison asks, startled.

“Apparently. Jackson said they even avoid each other in the locker room,” Lydia says.

The thought of Scott and Stiles not talking because of this, because of her, just seems _wrong_ to Allison. By rights, she knows that she should probably be pleased to hear that they haven’t been together, haven’t been taking comfort in each other while Allison struggles with her confusion. But she can’t bring herself to feel anything other than a strange sense of guilt for keeping them apart.

“I think I know what I need to say to Scott,” Allison says.

*  
“Scott?” Melissa asks softly. Scott groans and rolls over, blinking at his mother in confusion. His mother never wakes him up on Saturday mornings.

“Yeah?” he says.

“Allison’s here to see you,” Melissa says. A surge of hope and excitement spreads through Scott, waking him up. He grins at his mother before realising Allison must be here to talk and he has no idea what she’s been thinking about everything. His smile fades and his stomach twists. He sort of wants to text Stiles, but they’ve made it this far and he still doesn’t want to talk to him until he’s sure of where they stand. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do if Allison says Scott can’t see them both.

“Oh,” Scott says. “Um, just give me a minute to get dressed and then let her up?”

“Sure,” Melissa says. She pauses before adding, “Keep the door open, okay?”

“Mom!” Scott says, flushing. “She’s just here to talk.”

“Hey, I was a teenager once, I know how they like to talk,” Melissa says. “The door stays open.”

“Fine,” Scott says. “Just promise me you will never say things like that to me again.”

“No promises. Embarrassing your kid is one of the few perks of parenthood. One of the _very few_ ,” Melissa says. “Which is why we-”

“Use protection, I get it!” Scott says.

“I was going to say wait until marriage,” Melissa says, sounding mock horrified. “Maybe you two should be talking downstairs. Or at the pastor’s house.”

Scott rolls out of bed and marches up to his mother, ignoring her protests as he pushes her out of his room. Once she’s gone, he finds some clean clothes to pull on and tries to straighten his room a bit. At the tentative knock on his door he gives up moving piles of clothes around and goes to let Allison in.

“Hey,” Allison says. She’s smiling softly. He hopes that’s a good sign.

“Hey,” Scott says. They arrange themselves on the roughly made bed, sitting far apart enough that they can comfortably angle towards each other. It’s intimate without being intrusive. Allison slides a hand over, squeezes Scott’s hand and gives him a long look.

“You mean a lot to me,” Allison says. She shakes her head slightly when Scott opens his mouth to reply. “Let me finish, please. You mean a lot to me, and when you told me you couldn’t give Stiles up to be with me, it hurt. For a while, I thought maybe I could just keep going out with you and ignore whatever it is you have with Stiles. Or maybe I could just grit my teeth and push down the hurt, that it would be worth it to be with you. But that isn’t fair to either us, and it isn’t fair to Stiles, and it would have just ruined everything.”

“Allison,” Scott says, feeling helpless. Allison shakes her head again.

“I thought about it for a long time. I thought about how you are only supposed to want me, you’re not supposed to want more than one person. And I’m supposed to hate Stiles for trying to take you away from me,” Allison says. “But that’s not how I feel. I don’t hate Stiles, and I know he wants us to be together. And I realized that it’s okay if you like him, too, it doesn’t mean you want me any less.” 

Scott nods earnestly, bringing his other hand up and cupping Allison’s jaw. “It doesn’t.”

“It could never work if I resented Stiles or was jealous of what you guys had or if I was hurt that you wanted him too, but I don’t,” Allison says. She shrugs. “I don’t.”

“No?” Scott says, a smile smile shaping his lips.

“No,” Allison says. “I don’t know how this is going to work, but I’m willing to try.”

A startled noise of pure delight escapes Scott as he throws his arms around Allison and hugs her close. She laughs and winds her arms around him, and then they’re kissing, hurried happy kisses that only meet half the time because they can’t stop smiling and laughing.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Scott gasps, pulling aways from Allison. He picks up one of her hands and kisses it quickly, unable to stop touching Allison. There’s nothing he can do to tamp down on his joy, but he forces himself to calm down enough to finish the conversation. The last time he felt like this, he agreed to stop seeing Stiles without making any effort to understand what that meant. “We need to talk to Stiles.”

“Of course,” Allison says, nodding and sobering slightly.

“Is there anything you wanted to talk about before?” Scott asks.

Allison shakes her head. “I think if this is going to work, we need to treat it like one big relationship, no two separate ones. Not all the time, but for important stuff, and to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

“That makes sense,” Scott says. He smiles at Allison, feeling warm and happy. What Allison said felt so _right_. Stiles, him and Allison, all together as one unit. 

*  
“Stiles?” John asks, knocking lightly on Stiles’s open door. Stiles startles, and stops pacing looking up sheepishly.

“Yeah?” Stiles says.

“Just making sure you’re not wearing a hole in the carpet,” John says. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Stiles says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Scott just texted to say he and Allison were coming over.”

“And you were worried the carpet might be a bit thick?” John says.

Stiles manages a small laugh. “Got it in one.”

John hesitates at the door, tapping the handle with his fingers a few times. “Scott hasn’t been around for a while,” he says finally.

“No,” Stiles says. “Things have been a bit… weird between us.”

Stiles must look nearly as uncomfortable as he feels because John just says, “I hope you guys can work things out. That boy’s practically family.”

“Me too,” Stiles says, cringing at how raw his voice sounds. John crosses the room and wraps Stiles in a hug.

“Things will work out,” John says gruffly. “And if they don’t, I can always lock him up until he comes to his senses and realizes what a good friend you are.”

“Dad,” Stiles protests and John releases him, clapping Stiles on the shoulder before leaving the room. 

Stiles resumes pacing until at last there’s a knock at the front door and Stiles is faced with a dilemma. He doesn’t think he should sit on the bed, because if both Scott and Allison are coming over, sitting next to either of them would be awkward. But if he sits on his chair, that means Allison and Scott will end up sitting next to each other, and if they haven’t worked things out that could be uncomfortable. Worse still, if they have worked things out and decided to get back together again, Stiles isn’t sure if he could face watching them cosying up next to each other. Not right now, not now that he might be about to lose Scott again.

“Can we come in?” Scott’s voice pulls Stiles out of his seating musing. He looks up and Scott is smiling hesitantly at him, and Scott looks so damn happy Stiles can only smile back and resists the urge to go to Scott, drink in his joy and let himself be soothed. It hurts slightly to look over to Allison, but she’s smiling so softly, cautious and sweet and that softens the pain.

“Yeah, of course,” Stiles says. Scott and Allison walk in and seat themselves on the bed, leaving Stiles to drop into his chair. 

“I wanted to start by saying I’m sorry,” Allison says. Scott and Stiles glance at her in surprise. “I didn’t realize what you two had, and I hate that I asked to come between you two.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Stiles protests. “Scott and I didn’t have a thing, I was happy for you two to date.”

“Stiles,” Allison says gently. “Do you love Scott?”

“Yeah,” Stiles says, feeling an urge to roll his eyes. “Of course I do.”

Allison drops a hand on Scott’s arm, giving a small shake of her head to stop him from saying anything.

“Does Scott love you?” Allison says.

“Yes,” Stiles says, more firmly. 

“And did it hurt to be kept from him?” Allison says. “To be stopped from holding and kissing him?”

“I hated that,” Stiles says. He lifts his eyes to meet Allison. “But that doesn’t mean it was okay for us to go against what you asked.”

Allison shrugs. “No. But I’m beginning to see there was a lot more wrong than that.” She smiles at Stiles. “I don’t mind if you don’t want to give it a label, but the relationship you and Scott have is different to an average friendship. And I’ve realized it isn’t a threat to what I want with Scott.”

Stiles looks slowly between Allison and Scott. They slide their hands together, and Scott grins at Stiles.

“So you guys are… okay?” Stiles asks. 

“I think so,” Scott says. 

“That’s what we came to talk about,” Allison says. “Our relationship is bigger than just the two of us.”

Stiles frowns. “Yeah?”

“I told Allison I didn’t know if I could be with her if it meant giving you up,” Scott says.

“Yeah?” Stiles, lighting up.

“I didn’t know what to feel about that,” Allison says. “I thought about it for a long time, and I still don’t really know what is means, but the fact is you and Scott together doesn’t hurt me, doesn’t even really upset me. And not being with you was devastating to Scott.”

“Oh,” Stiles says. “So you don’t mind if Scott and I… are together?”

“No.” Allison shakes her head.

“But you’ll still be dating Scott,” Stiles says.

“If that’s okay with you,” Allison says.

“Yeah,” Stiles says dumbly. Then he grins and stands up, stumbling over to throw his arms around Allison. “That would be the best.”

Allison return the hug briefly before shoving at Stiles, saying, “Hey, the relationship does not extend to you and me.”

Stiles leaps back immediately, flushing. “No, sorry, that’s not what I-”

“Just teasing,” Allison says, grinning. “Now go kiss your boyfriend.”

She laughs as Stiles and Scott’s noses wrinkle in distaste at the word, grabbing a pillow and whacking Stiles with it. Scott pulls Stiles to sit on his other side, shielding Stiles from Allison and moves in to kiss Stiles. It’s soft and sweet, with an underlying sense of desperation and things being right in the world. They only get a few minutes to take stock of each other before Allison grows bored and starts thumping Scott with pillows. 

For hours, they playfight and laugh, talking about stupid things and serious things and let themselves start to feel what it means to be a kind of three.

“I know I said the relationship doesn’t include you and me,” Allison says to Stiles at one point. “But the reality is I don’t think this is going to work if you and I don’t get along. I think we need to make sure we spend some time together, every now and then.”

“I’d love that,” Stiles says. He pulls Allison into another hug and cautiously kisses her cheek when they move apart. Allison grins at him, punching him in the arm.

They go out for lunch, wander around the park until it grows dark and take pizzas back to Stiles’s house. It’s nearly eleven before Stiles’s dad starts to hint certain teenagers should get home before curfew, and Stiles is surprised to find it’s hard to say goodbye to Allison. It seems wrong that Scott should leave, mostly because as far as Stiles is concerned Scott should never be more than about a foot away, but he can see how it might set this new relationship off on the wrong foot if he stays. Still, it’s an unexpected sensation, wanting Allison to stay, too. 

*  
For a while, things are good.

*  
“No, no, no!” Stiles says, throwing his arms up in despair. Scott sighs along with him, giving Stiles a pat on the back and squeezes Allison’s hand.

“Are they really that good?” Allison asks, watching the players run down the field. One scoops up the ball and flings it down the field, right into a cluster of opposing players.

“Did you see how the one in the middle caught the ball earlier?” Scott says.

“The midfielder or the one playing defense?” Allison asks.

“Um,” Scott says, glancing at Stiles.

“The midfielder,” Stiles responds absently, frowning at the field.

“Right, the midfielder,” Scott says.

“I didn’t think it was that impressive of a catch,” Allison says, shrugging.

“Well, we’re mostly still working on catching the ball full stop,” Scott admits. “And coach was talking about letting us switch in for a bit of our next game.”

“That’s great!” Allison says, smiling. 

“Not if we’re playing these guys,” Stiles says sadly. “I swear, that guy has caught the ball like nine times this game.”

When the game ends, Allison offers to take Scott and Stiles out for pizza to buck up their spirits. It’s only been three weeks, but it already feels natural for Scott to sit with an arm thrown around Stiles and tangle his feet with Allison under the table. Scott and Stiles still aren’t very demonstrative in public, no more than friends would be, but the game was in the next town over and suddenly it doesn’t seem so strange to lean in to kiss Stiles every now and then. Even if they do get strange looks from the lady two tables down, who saw Scott walk hand-in-hand with Allison. It’s none of her business and Scott’s never been happier, so he ignores her and reaches over for Allison’s hand, kissing her palm in thanks for her pep talk on how well Scott and Stiles are going to do in their next game.

*  
“Shut up!” Allison says, giggling and stepping forward and back several times.

“I didn’t say anything,” Stiles protests, laughing and swinging his arms around desperately.

Allison grunts as she tries to mimic the leg movement on the screen, dropping to the ground when it doesn’t register and she is declared the loser.

“Victory!” Stiles cries out, pumping his fist in the air. Allison takes advantage of his distraction and lunges over, knocking Stiles back into the couch.

“Ha!” Allison says, digging her fingers into Stiles’s side.

“No fair!” Stiles gasps. “When we go to the shooting range and you win, I can’t pin you down and force you to endure a tickling. Not unless I want to get shot.”

“Maybe you need to learn to win something more dangerous than Dance Dance Revolution,” Allison says, but she releases Stiles and sits back on the floor, grabbing a slice of pizza.

“I’ll have you know I can take out targets in a heartbeat in Assassin’s Creed,” Stiles says.

“I’m trembling in my boots,” Allison says, grinning.

Stiles throws a cushion at her head.

*  
“You want us to go ice skating without you?” Allison asks, confused. She loves going iceskating with Scott and Stiles, at first it was mostly because it was adorable watching them flounder and clutch each other like their lives depended on it. But as they grew steadier, the three of them could spend hours on a Saturday skating, trying fancy moves, pretending to be figure skaters, racing or just skating lazy circles and teasing each other.

“It’s a present,” Stiles says.

“It’s not my birthday,” Allison says. Stiles beams.

“What happened this day four months ago?” Stiles asks.

Allison frowns and tries to count back. Suddenly it clicks and she laughs. “I took Scott iceskating. You want us to celebrate the four month anniversary of our first date alone?”

“Managed to get the rink cleared and everything,” Stiles says. “We can go bowling with Lydia and Jackson next month, if you want to celebrate that, too. Keep in mind, though, that I’ve been practicing.”

“I’ve seen you,” Allison says. “Highest score on Wii Bowling by nearly 200 points. Very impressive.”

Stiles grins at her and Allison pulls him in for a hug, thanking him for the present.

 

Scott is holding flowers when Allison goes to pick him up, which is terribly romantic until Allison realizes they will need to go back into Scott’s house and put them in water. She’s not sure if it’s this small blunder or if something else is up, but Scott is slightly out of sorts all evening, a little nervous when Allison kisses him, a little hesitant when she grabs his hand and tugs him over to sit in the stands and eat chips and make out.

They spend nearly two hours skating, interspersed with some serious kissing and groping. Scott is unusually desperate as he touches her, running his hands over her waist and dipping down to cup at the curve of her hips, sliding back up to breasts. It’s strange, but Allison hadn’t noticed until now how tame Scott usually was when they made out, resting his hands on her back or using them to keep himself propped up above her on the couch. At one point, he even presses their legs together, and she can feel he is hard. She moans in encouragement and he cautiously moves against her, breaking away with a groan and gives her a shy, almost embarrassed smile, cheeks flushed and eyes darkened with desire.

“Allison,” Scott says softly, grabbing her arm to stop her from leaving. They’ve swapped their shoes back and packed up, and there’s a sudden tension in the air.

“Yes, Scott?” Allison says, feeling nervous. Scott reaches out and grabs her hands.

“Tonight had been wonderful,” Scott says.

“Just perfect,” Allison agrees, smiling. “It was a beautiful present.”

“Yeah,” Scott agrees, smiling. “I wanted tonight to be special.”

“Yeah?” Allison said, wondering just how special Scott was thinking, remembering the feel of him pressed into her hip, breath hot against her neck.

“Meeting you has been-” Scott breaks off. He takes a deep breath. “Allison, I love you.”

Allison feels herself go completely still, a strange warmth spreading out from her stomach. Her lips spread into a huge smile, and she feels a bit stupid when her eyes start to mist over and it breaks the spell, freeing her limbs and she grabs Scott, kissing him desperately. 

“Wait, wait,” she says, tearing herself away.

“What’s wrong?” Scott asks anxiously. Allison grabs Scott’s hands and smiles shyly at him.

“Scott,” she says. “I love you, too.”

*  
Brown and Greenberg get caught smoking behind the bike racks two days before their next home game, and Coach Finstock reluctantly agrees to let Scott and Stiles stand in for them.

“This is going to be our game, Scotty,” Stiles says the night before the game. He presses a kiss onto Scott’s bare shoulder.

“You really think so?” Scott says, rolling over and looking earnestly at Stiles.

“I really do,” Stiles says. Scott slides on top of him, and kisses him.

“Then I do, too,” Scott says, nodding.

*  
The crowd erupts into cheers. Scott and Stiles are flooded with adrenaline, almost shaking in their excitement. They run at each other and Stiles is jumping up and down, Scott turning them around, their limbs tangling, squeezing each other. 

Once they’ve calmed down enough to head over to the stadium, Allison, Melissa and the Sheriff are there to congratulate them. Allison pulls Scott in for a kiss, Melissa and John wrapping Stiles in a hug, before they swap, Allison hugging Stiles, Melissa wrapping Scott up as John pats him on the back.

“Did you see when Scott caught the ball and immediately turned to me and threw it,” Stiles says excitedly.

“But then _you_ caught it even though I didn’t give you any warning,” Scott says.

“The goalie didn’t even see you coming,” Allison adds, grinning.

Melissa and John repeat their congratulations before saying goodbye, leaving Scott, Stiles and Allison to go out with the team for a victory dinner. The story of Stiles unexpected winning goal is told over and over, and even Jackson manages to keep the condescending comments to a minimum. It’s late by the time they split up, everyone stuffed and pleased with themselves. Allison smiles coyly at Scott.

“Want a lift home?” she asks. Scott grins, shaking his head.

“Nah, I’m going over to Stiles’s, so I’ll just go with him,” Scott says. 

“Oh,” Allison says. She feels a bit wrong footed. She knows all of the other girlfriends and boyfriends are taking their star players home for some victory sex, or at least victory make outs and she wants to take Scott home and see how far they go. But Stiles is sort of Scott’s boyfriend, and they were the star players, so it makes more sense for them to go home together. She’s not sure how they’ve managed to make it nearly six months without this problem ever arising, but now it has and she has no idea how to deal with it. To her surprise, Stiles throws an arm around Allison.

“My dad’s home,” Stiles says. “We’re just going to play Call of Duty until one of us passes out. You can tag along, if you like.”

Allison chews her lip, looking at Scott. He smiles encouragingly at her. 

“You should come!” Scott says. “It’ll be fun.”

“Sure,” Allison says.

 

Scott feels kind of stupid for brushing Allison’s offer for a lift off in such a dismissive way. It just hadn’t clicked at first that she was offering to take him home to her house, not just drop him off at his. And then she had looked so embarrassed and hurt and out of place and Scott had frozen, not knowing what to do to fix the situation until Stiles had stepped in. Now they were being lectured by the Sheriff on how Allison had to sleep in the spare room and Scott sort of got why Allison had been hesitant to come over. Apparently _everyone_ assumed he would be wanting sex the night they won a lacrosse game.

“I expect Allison will be in the spare room after one and Scott will be staying in Stiles’s room,” the Sheriff says sternly. “The bed is all made up, and there’s a spare towel and toothbrush for you.”

“Thank you,” Allison says politely and with one last firm look at Scott, the Sheriff leaves them. Immediately Allison starts to laugh.

“What’s funny?” Stiles asks, flushing slightly. “No one should ever be reminded that their parents know about sex.”

“He clearly doesn’t know that much about it,” Allison says. Scott frowns and Stiles blanches.

“Don’t say things like that,” Stiles says. “It’s bad enough I know he knows, I don’t need to know details.”

“I just meant it’s funny he send me off to a room because he doesn’t want any teenage sex happening under his roof, but then he tells Scott he has to stay in here with you,” Allison says grinning. 

“Oh yeah,” Scott says. He grins at Stiles and they laugh.

They play video games until one and Allison disappears into the other room. Scott and Stiles turn off the TV and tuck themselves into bed. For the next half-an-hour or so, they lie, curled in towards each other, talking quietly.

“I think Dad’s asleep,” Stiles says sleepily.

“Yeah?” Scott replies, feeling soft and calm, Stiles’s words not meaning much more to him than a comforting noise.

“Yeah,” Stiles says, leaning over and pressing his forehead against Scott. “So you can sneak off to see Allison if you want.”

“Oh,” Scott says, smiling but not particularly wanting to get up. Then Stiles slides a hand down his side, slipping it under his boxers and rubbing his hip. “ _Oh_. Do you think she wants me to?”

Stiles laughs. “She definitely does, Scotty. She wanted to ravage you on the backseat of her car earlier tonight, I think it broke her heart when you turned her down to play video games with me.”

“Oh,” Scott says again. “You don’t think she’s asleep?”

“She won’t mind being woken, trust me,” Stiles said. “Not if the condom she pinched as she left was any indication.”

“Oh,” Scott says. Stiles pulls him in for a kiss before slapping his hip and pushing him out of bed.

It seems an awfully long way to the spare room, but fortunately Scott had a lot of practice sneaking around Stiles’s house and he manages to make it to Allison’s door without waking the Sheriff. Taking a deep breath, Scott enters and is pleased to find Allison sitting up reading.

“Hey,” Scott says. Allison grins at him.

“Lock the door,” she says softly. Scott complies and then walks over to the bed, relieved when Allison immediately pulls him in and moves his hands to start pulling off her clothes. Once they’re naked, Allison lies back and lets Scott look, casting her own admiring glance over Scott, making him flush. Just looking isn’t enough, though, and Allison puts his hands on her waist and starts whispering encouragement.

He knows that Allison is softer, all curves and smooth edges, her body giving easily to Scott’s exploration, leaving Allison panting out small gasps of pleasure. It doesn’t make Scott feel he had to go slowly or gently, though. He feels confident, giving in to his desire to touch her, taking the control she hands him, stroking her, wrapping a hand around her waist, and tucking his face into her neck to groan as she reaches for him. 

It’s so different to the first few times Stiles had surrendered control to him, a similar sense of exhilaration and desperate desire, but there’s no hesitancy in his movements, no cautious giving in to his wants. Scott has always felt protective of Stiles, though, from the first time they met and Scott pulled a crying ten-year-old Stiles into his arms. It’s wonderful, knowing he can take care of Stiles, give back something of the incredible things Stiles has given to him over the years.

He loves knowing how strong Allison is, too. Especially now, losing himself easily in her, unafraid to take, knowing she was taking and losing herself right along with him. When he was first with Stiles, they spent a long time reveling in the feeling of each other, lust building more slowly, but everything with Allison feels urgent and desperate and wild and all he wants to do is _move_. Allison smiles up at him and he lets go. She makes him feel fearless, like he can take on the whole world. 

They move together so naturally, so perfectly, so in sync. It’s been this way from the start, when they first saw each other, first talked, first kissed, this sense of being so right, only now they know each other, now they love each other. There’s no nervousness, no awkwardness, just giving and taking and panting out little noises of pleasure. Scott feels almost overwhelmed with the sensation of being so close with Allison, but he can’t stop moving. The sense of urgency builds and builds, heightening everything.

“Scott,” Allison moans, clutching Scott’s arms, and grinning at him. He beams back, unable to do more than smile and gasp until he cries out and collapses on top of her.

“I love you,” Scott whispers.

“I love you, too,” Allison says. She presses a kiss to Scott’s jaw before encouraging him to roll over.

 

When she wakes, Allison finds herself wrapped around Scott, both of them still naked. She glances cautiously at the door, relaxing when she sees it is still shut and locked. When the kisses she brushes across Scott’s back don’t wake him, Allison starts nipping at his skin, digging her fingers into his waist until Scott is squirming and murmuring his complaints. She drags him out of bed, shoving on clothes and helping Scott step back into his boxers and handing him a dressing gown.

They go downstairs and find it’s after eleven and the Sheriff has left a note to Allison, telling her to help herself to any food she finds, warning her the boys will probably sleep through most of the morning, and possibly some of the afternoon. Allison smiles fondly at Scott, who is clearly still half asleep and has slumped into one of the kitchen chairs, eyes half-shut and yawning.

The smell of cooking bacon and eggs lures Stiles down and he stands in the kitchen door blinking at Allison.

“Morning,” Stiles mumbles around a yawn. He spots Scott and makes a beeline for him, collapsing into Scott’s lap, saying, “Early.”

“Allison,” Scott replies. Stiles nods and rests his head on Scott’s shoulder. Allison laughs. She plates up some bacon and eggs, much to Scott and Stiles mutual pleasure and bemusement. They drag themselves through breakfast and when they’re more awake, they head back upstairs to shower, discussing whether they should start their chemistry assignment or see if they can get Scott to play Dance Dance Revolution. 

It doesn’t much matter what they do, Allison thinks idly to herself. 

Things are good.

*  
Everything seems to change when Allison turns eighteen.

*  
“Hey!” Allison says cheerfully, dropping into the bench next to Scott. 

“Allison!” Scott says, surprised. 

“What the hell?” Stiles demands. “You left for over month!”

“I told you, it was a family thing,” Allison says lightly.

“You sent Scott a text saying your family was going out of time for a while and you didn’t know when you would be back,” Stiles says. There’s people all around them, but Stiles moves closer to Scott, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “You don’t reply to our texts for five weeks and then show up out of the blue with nothing more than a ‘hey’?”

“I told you I would be out of range,” Allison says. “My family takes turning eighteen seriously.”

“So, what, they took you out to the woods to commune with the trees for a month?” Stiles says.

“Pretty much,” Allison replies. Her voice is still light, but Stiles can see that her casual demeanor is starting to crack. He’s too angry and hurt to forgive her just yet, but he can feel Scott start to soften, leaning subtly closer to Allison.

“That must have sucked,” Scott says.

“Yeah,” Allison says gently and hell, it wasn’t Allison’s fault her family was freaking weird.

*  
They don’t see Allison all summer again, and she’s nearly two months late to starting school. Whatever happened over the summer seems to have changed Allison. She’s more muscular, and lighter on her feet, always aware of their surroundings. Scott can feel Allison holding back when they are together, and even Stiles has commented that she doesn’t tackle him any more, doesn’t start any pillow fights or tickle fights when he wins their competitions. Maybe that’s not that surprising, given that she lets him win.

Within a few weeks, though, they manage to settle down again. It’s a new kind of normal, but it’s not a bad kind of normal. They study and goof off and eat pizza and even go on a few more double dates with Lydia and Jackson. For nearly six months, everything seems nearly perfect, and the strangeness of Allison disappearing is almost forgotten.

*  
“Who was that?” Scott asks, frowning at Allison. An older man had come to collect her from their third period class and returned her ten minutes before the end of the day. She was pale and looked shaken, eyes red.

“That was my grandpa,” Allison says. 

“What happened?” Stiles asks, reaching out to rest a comforting hand on her arm. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, everyone’s fine,” Allison says. She takes a deep breath and grabs Scott’s hand. “He just came to tell me I’m moving.”

“No!” Scott says. Stiles grabs his other hand and squeezes it.

“Where to? When? Why?” Stiles asks.

“We need to move because of my dad’s work,” Allison says, her voice sounding almost wooden. “We’re going to Canada for a while, and then we might be moving down to Maryland.”

“When?” Stiles repeats and Scott gives her an earnest look.

“Tonight,” Allison says.

“That’s ridiculous,” Stiles says. “It takes longer than that to move. Why can’t you just stay here while everything is getting sorted? There’s not much left of school, what’s the point of you going?”

Allison shakes her head. “I don’t know, but I only have a few more minutes before my grandpa comes back.”

“Shit,” Stiles says. 

“You’re not going somewhere with no phone reception again, are you?” Scott asks. Allison gives a wan smile.

“I think Canada has cell phone reception,” Allison says. “I hear they even have the internet in some parts.”

Scott frowns and gives a shudder. Allison pulls him in for a kiss, holding him for a long time after he moves to tuck his head into the crook of Allison’s shoulder. When she releases him, Stiles wraps his arm around Scott and gives Allison a one-armed hug, holding her tight and kissing her hair.

“I’ll miss you,” Stiles says.

“Me too,” Allison says. She grabs Scott’s hand. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

*  
“She’s really gone,” Scott says, frowning. He’s lying fully clothed on his bed and just staring up at the ceiling.

“I know, Scotty,” Stiles says. “I know.”

He puts a glass of water down on the dresser next to Scott, and lets Scott pull him down to lie together, resting his head on Scott’s chest.

“Can you stay tonight?” Scott asks.

“Of course, Scotty,” Stiles says. “Of course I’ll stay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you thought :)
> 
> Next story is being planned at the moment, and hopefully when things calm down I can tackle it. It will follow Scott and Stiles into college where they will meet Derek and get introduced to the world of the supernatural.
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](http://likeanelephantfootprint.tumblr.com/).
> 
> **ETA** : New story stalled out unexpectedly quickly, as you may or may not have noticed... Still trying to work out what to do about that, but here's a little teaser for you :) [Enjoy!](http://likeanelephantfootprint.tumblr.com/post/125604439213/a-lovely-anon-asked-about-my-skittles-series)


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